Norris ‘hates saying we’ve thrown another win away’ at home · RaceFans

Lando Norris did not hide his disappointment at missing another chance to win a race this year after leading his home grand prix prior to his final pit stop.

The McLaren driver overtook Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes to take the lead of today’s race. He kept the lead as a mid-race shower prompted drivers to switch to intermediate tyres.

But as the track dried out, Norris waited a lap longer than his two closest rivals to switch to slick tyres. Lewis Hamilton opted for softs and took the lead, while Verstappen switched to hards and closed on Norris, eventually passing him for second.

Norris scored his first grand prix victory in Miami, but has missed other potential opportunities for victory at the Red Bull Ring, Montreal and Imola. Asked in today’s press conference whether this was a win that got away, Norris said: “I’ve had that a lot lately, so I hate saying it again.

“But so many things were going well and we threw it away in the final stop. One lap [later], but also I didn’t think it was the [choice of] lap. I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the softs was the wrong one.

“I think Lewis still would have won no matter what. So two calls from our side cost us everything today. So, especially here, pretty disappointing.”

But despite his frustration at missing so many chances to win, Norris does not believe McLaren have had the quickest car at any race yet.

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“When it was completely dry the Mercedes was a lot quicker. In the more slippery conditions, maybe we seemed a bit better. So we have work to do.

“I don’t think we’ve still had the weekend where we’ve clearly been the quickest. We’ve always been there or thereabouts, but never ‘the’ car.

“I think we need to keep working as a team. I need to keep working on my own stuff and just try to put it together because there are still so many positives. There are so many good things and so many things in place.

“But it’s frustrating when, a few times this season, we’ve thrown away something that should have been ours.”

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