Lando Norris believes he should have won the Spanish Grand Prix as he had the fastest car on Sunday.
Pole-sitter Norris missed out on a second career win by 2.2 seconds as Max Verstappen held off the McLaren driver to extend his lead in the championship.
The key moment came at the start when Norris lost out to Verstappen and George Russell going into Turn One. While Verstappen was able to quickly overtake Russell on the third lap, Norris spent the majority of the race fighting back on a different strategy, but couldn’t return to the front.
“I need to review things, sit down and have a look. It’s not like it was a bad start. It was two metres. Max just got there and I couldn’t cover him and that was it,” Norris told Sky Sports F1.
“Also from George’s side, he had such a good slipstream. The cars are getting more and more draggy because we are adding more and more downforce.
“George’s slipstream past both of us. Even if you took me out of it, George still would have got ahead of Max. That’s the crazy part of it all.
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George Russell snatches the lead from Lando Norris at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“It wasn’t the best start but it wasn’t a bad start. Nowadays when it’s so close. One or two metres makes the difference between winning a race or not winning.
“A shame. Such a small margin cost us. It was a good race apart from that. From Turn Two onwards, it was pretty much perfect. Can’t complain but I lost too much at the beginning.”
Norris had to sit behind Russell for 16 laps, until the latter made his first pit stop, by the time Verstappen opened up a lead of five seconds.
McLaren opted to extend Norris’ first stint, so he had fresher tyres for the second and final stints. Norris only overtook Russell on Lap 35 after a brilliant battle between the British drivers through several corners, but was now nine seconds behind Verstappen.
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Watch as George Russell and Lando Norris battle for P2 at the Spanish Grand Prix.
“The first three laps of a stint you can overtake because the tyres are so good, so the beginning of the stint I was good but that was Max’s opportunity to get past George and he did that,” continued Norris.
“After that, the tyres just get so hot and you can’t do different lines and can’t go out of the dirty air. There was nothing else I could have done. It was just as simple as everyone falls in line a bit, then towards the end of the stint you can do different things.
“But it’s also complicated because I’m not going to push so hard to try and pass him, ruin my race by overpushing.
“I’ve got to think of the bigger picture at the same time. I think what we did today from that side was exactly what we needed to do.”
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Lando Norris cruises past Lewis Hamilton to move into the top three at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Norris: Frustrating to lose to Verstappen
It’s the fifth time in six races that Verstappen and Norris have finished in the top two. Only once, in Miami, has Norris come out on top but he was less than a second away in Imola and came close again in Canada.
He’s moved up to second in the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career but trails Verstappen by 69 points.
“I’m further behind first. I’m frustrated because I didn’t lose the race to someone, I lost it to Max and he’s in the lead of the championship,” said Norris.
He added: “We had the quickest car. In qualifying, the Red Bull was 100 per cent quicker, today we had the quickest car. Fact.
“The team deserved it. We were the quickest on track from start to finish but with the overtaking, the following and dirty air, that cost me the win, I just didn’t do a good enough job.”
McLaren and Red Bull appear to be evenly matched with Austria and Silverstone coming up in the next two weeks, tracks which both teams have gone strongly at in recent years.
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A frustrated Lando Norris reviews the Spanish Grand Prix where he finished second.
Norris isn’t ruling out a title fight but suggests that McLaren need to move clear of Red Bull on pace to start gaining points on Verstappen.
“If it’s like this every weekend, I need something more and Max to not finish second. He’s doing a good job. I can’t fault him,” he said.
“I have what I need, the team have what they need. As a team, we have a good car. I think we still need to improve some things and I’m confident we can.
“Today we had the opportunity to win. Whether or not we had the best package, today we should have won the race but we didn’t and those are opportunities we can’t miss out on.”
F1’s triple-header continues with the Austrian Grand Prix this coming week – with the Sprint format returning at the Red Bull Ring. Watch every session live on Sky Sports F1, with Sunday’s big race at 2pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
