Lando Norris qualified first for the Spanish Grand Prix, but his bad start cost him later on as he pursued race winner Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris took full responsibility for the situation after just missing out on the race for the Spanish Grand Prix victory.
The British driver overcame Max Verstappen on Saturday to start the race on pole. Nevertheless, despite Norris putting pressure on him in the last moments of the race, it was the Red Bull man who crossed the finish line first.
In order to give Norris a tyre advantage later on, McLaren gambled on a strategy that almost paid off by starting him later than Verstappen on both stops. Although the 24-year-old gave it his all, he was only two seconds behind the leader of the championship when he ran out of laps to complete the task.
Ultimately, his lackluster start to the race proved to be costly. While Verstappen and Norris were bickering, George Russell swept around the outside of them to take an early lead. Verstappen had the slight advantage.
Verstappen quickly overtook the Mercedes, but the crucial moment was when Norris lost a lot of time to his countryman and became trapped behind him. The McLaren driver was aware of this.
Over the radio, he sounded disgusted with himself after accepting the chequered flag. He said to his race engineer: “It’s not really important, is it? I messed up at the beginning, so I should have won. Car deserved more; it was fantastic.”
As he took the microphone for his post-race interview, he kept blaming himself, saying, “I should have done [better].” It was just a bad start for me. I think we were the fastest today, but the car was amazing today, and I just lost it at the beginning.
“Yeah, I’m disappointed, but everything was kind of ruined by one negative out of the many positives. I just need to improve on it for the next time. A good number of points, though, and a special thank you to the team because the car was fantastic aside from that.
I’m not sure if I was just a little off or what I did incorrectly. I didn’t lose to Max by much; it wasn’t like he was at my side all the time. But all of a sudden, George was outside and he had me. Bravo to Red Bull and Max for yet another successful project. We’ll improve for the next time, but it’s unfortunate that we lost here. It’s a little frustrating.”
However, Norris expressed optimism for the upcoming two circuits, saying, “Austria and Silverstone are two of my favorite tracks in terms of where I’ve done well. We’ve been doing great and are in a good groove, so I’m excited. We’ll win if I just clean up a few small details.”
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