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McLaren driver Lando Norris believes he missed a clear shot at victory in the Spanish Grand Prix after losing two places on the opening lap and then taking a different strategic approach to his rivals.
Norris started Sunday’s race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from pole position but lost out to Mercedes of George Russell and, in what turned out to be a crucial moment, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Norris and McLaren opted to go long in the first stint with an off-set strategy, an approach that forced the Briton to fight his way back through the field en route to an eventual P2 finish.
“Not could, should have won. I got a bad start, simple as that,” Norris said in an interview, sharing his reflections on the race.
“The car was incredible today, I think we were for sure the quickest, I just lost it in the beginning. So yeah, disappointed, but a lot of positives, one negative and that kind of ruined everything.
“I know that. I can just work on it for next time and, apart from that, a good amount of points and a big thanks to the team, because the car was amazing.”
Pushed on what happened at the start, Norris added: “I’m not sure, I need to look back and review. I don’t know what I did wrong or if I was just slightly out.
“It was only a little bit to Max that I lost, it wasn’t like he was completely alongside, it was more that George was suddenly outside and kind of had me over.
“Fair play, well done to Red Bull and Max, another job done for them, but a shame that we lost it at the same time, so a bit frustrating. We’ll work on it next time.”
Despite the disappointment of missing out on victory, Norris is Verstappen’s nearest challenger in the title race, having cleared Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for second in the standings.
Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund has taken full ownership of the McLaren Group, which builds high-end sportscars and owns a majority stake in the McLaren F1 team. The Bahraini fund, Mumtalakat, was already McLaren’s biggest shareholder.
