Lando Norris says he should have won the Canadian Grand Prix but missed an opportunity to pit when the Safety Car was first deployed.
The Safety Car was deployed while Norris was leading and appeared to join the track too late for him to immediately take advantage and make a low-cost pit stop. He lost time lapping behind it while the drivers behind him were able to pit right away, and by the time Norris eventually came in to change tyres he had lost so much time he rejoined the track in third place.
However Norris revealed there had been enough time for McLaren to bring him in when the Safety Car came out.
“We should have won the race today and we didn’t, so it’s frustrating,” he said. “We had the pace – probably not in the dry at the end but it turned out it didn’t really matter too much.
“But we should have won today, simple as that. We didn’t do a good enough job as a team to box when we should have done and not get stuck behind the Safety Car.”
Norris won the Miami Grand Prix last month when the Safety Car appeared on track in time for him to make his pit stop after leader Max Verstappen had, moving him into the lead. He lost victory yesterday to Verstappen, who said “it’s one-one now this year”, but Norris insisted the two situations were different.
“I don’t think it was a luck or unlucky kind of thing. I don’t think it was the same as Miami. This was just making a wrong call.
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“So it’s on me and it’s on the team and it’s something we’ll discuss after. We should have won today.”
Miami remains Norris’ only victory so far this year. He took his fourth other podium finish in Canada.
“I think we’re at a level now where we’re not satisfied with a second,” he said. “The target is to win and we didn’t do that.
“So it’s frustrating, but a tough race and still to end up in second when it could always finish and could be worse is still a good result.”
He regained some of his lost places later by delaying his switch from intermediate tyres to slicks. “It helped me have a chance against George [Russell],” Norris explained. “I overcut him.
“I didn’t do a good enough job afterwards, and he was clearly way quicker than us in the dry and even on the hard tyres. So that was completely the right call and a good decision from us to stay out. It gave me a lot of lap time.
“And it’s not the timing of the first Safety Car. I had enough time to box and we didn’t box. So this was a mistake on us as a team. And yeah, just something we didn’t do a good enough job with.”
Norris was investigated for gaining an advantage when he went off the track at one stage during the race, but the stewards ruled he had not benefited and did not penalise him.
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2024 Canadian Grand Prix
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