Lando Norris admitted he is frustrated by the mistakes he has made in qualifying sessions this year.

The McLaren driver, who is in his first season of Formula 1, is leading his team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr by nine to seven in qualifying . But Norris says he has made too many errors on Saturdays.

“I just keep making these mistakes in qualifying which I get really annoyed with because qualifying’s so important,” said Norris in Japan. “I know I’m good in qualifying and I know I can do it it’s just I don’t do it when I need to do it.”

Norris was out-qualified by Sainz at Suzuka after making a mistake at the end his final run in Q3.

“It was actually one of my best laps I would say,” Norris explained. “All the way until the last chicane.

“I would make some small mistakes here and there, small under-rotation or miss the apex by a little bit. I never like nailed a lap. [But in] Q3 we made a few small tweaks and I was on for one of my best laps, I would say, of the season, until the last chicane.

“I hit the kerb slightly wrong, the second part of it, and then I just bounced a little bit too much as I came off under acceleration. And then it obviously goes into a right hander as you go over the start/finish line. Because the car was still a bit nervous, still a bit bouncing, then I didn’t have the traction out of the corner and I lost a lot of time all the way out.

“So I’m pretty annoyed because I had a good run until then.”

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2019 F1 season