Norris was tough on himself and McLaren when he got out of the car in Montreal. The Englishman was second, but led at the end of the first ‘stint’ and reached an advantage of 11 seconds over Verstappen before Sargeant’s accident that brought out the first safety car. It seemed that the appearance of the ‘SC’ was not opportune for Lando, because he barely had time to decide to stop, while the cars coming from behind went straight to the pit-lane. By completing a full lap behind the safety car, lost a good part of its advantage. He made his pit-stop late and returned third behind Verstappen and Russell, when before the incident he was first by a margin.
Lando summed it up: “We should have won and we didn’t win, so it’s frustrating. We had the rhythm. Probably not when it was dry at the end, but it didn’t matter much. We should have won, it’s as simple as that. We didn’t do a good job when we had to stop and not stay behind the safety car. I don’t think it was luck or bad luck. It’s not the same as in Miami. This was making the wrong decision, so it’s in my hands and the team’s hands and it’s something we will discuss. We should have won. We are at that level where you are not satisfied with a second place, the goal is to win and we didn’t do that. Although in a tough race, if you finish second it means it could be much worse, it is a good result.”
“With the safety car, it wasn’t because of the timing. I had plenty of time to stop and we didn’t stop, so it was our mistake as a team. We didn’t do a good job with that,” says the Englishman, second at the finish line, who does not question the attempted overcut on Verstappen by delaying the change to dry tires in the last third of the race: “When we were left with the intermediate helped me have a chance against George (Russell), an ‘overcut’. Then he was faster in the dry, even with the hard tire. You need a lap or two to warm up the tires so you’re always going to get close to the overcut in that situation, a cold slick tire will never be as good as the intermediate at the end of the stint. I didn’t lose or win, we were far from Max so I pushed too late. I stayed longer because I was quite fast at the end of the ‘stint’. I could have passed George a lap or two before the tire change and I would have closed the gap on Max to give myself a chance to undercut or overcut Max.”
In any case, McLaren is progressing and in the last five grands prix, on very different circuits (China, Miami, Imola, Monaco and Montreal) they have been strong and have come to fight for victory. About Barcelona, Norris says: “I’m looking forward to each circuit because we seem to be doing well everywhere. It’s also good to see that Mercedes has improved, they have been very close to being the fastest car in the last two races. It’s positive to finish ahead of them, because this time they were faster and it’s always good to beat a faster car. But if they continue like this, they will join the fight with Ferrari, Red Bull and us and that is only going to make our lives more exciting. More difficult, more stressful, because there will be eight cars fighting in front.”
