BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Lando Norris denied the suggestion he had blown a big opportunity to reset his title fight with Oscar Piastri by scraping the wall at the end of Q3 on Saturday.
Piastri, who leads McLaren teammate Norris by 31 points in the title race, slammed into the wall at Turn 4 in the final qualifying session.
That prompted a red flag and, as light rain fell on the circuit, Norris was the first driver to emerge on the track to set a late time.
His lap appeared to be on the ragged edge until Turn 15, where his car scraped along the TecPro barriers -- the time he set was only good enough for seventh by the time he had finished.
Verstappen, who had left the pits slightly later than the McLaren driver, managed to take a comfortable pole position with a clean lap. Piastri will start just two places behind Norris in ninth position.
When asked if it was an opportunity lost, Norris said: "No, because I still did everything I could. "The tricky conditions, I went out first and it was just the wrong decision to make in the end. If everyone else got a yellow behind because someone else went off behind me, you wouldn't be asking me this question. Sometimes it goes your way around here, sometimes it doesn't.
"We thought we took a better option. I think it would have been if it wasn't spitting [with rain], it just started to spit again before the final run. And then going out first is just the incorrect thing.
"So, something we'll learn from. But no, the opportunities are there every single weekend to be on pole. I try and do that every weekend.
"Today I struggled more because of not making the best decision. But that's a hindsight thing, not an incorrect one at the time."
He then clarified: "I wanted to go out first, yes."
It means the fast McLaren drivers will have to navigate through the pack if they want any chance of winning the race. Norris thinks Verstappen will have an easy time of it on Sunday. "Great for you guys," Norris joked about that prospect.
"Hopefully a good watch. I think we won't have the pace to beat Max. I think he's just going to be fast.
"He's been quick all weekend. They can easily win in Monza. They can easily win again here today, this weekend.
"I'm not sure about the win, but we'll be trying to get on the podium."