F1

Threw it away – Lando Norris ‘fed up’ after seeing another win slip from grasp

Norris finished third at the British Grand Prix behind Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

McLaren’s Lando Norris felt he threw away victory at Silverstone
McLaren’s Lando Norris felt he threw away victory at Silverstone (David Davies/PA)
By Philip Duncan, PA F1 Correspondent, Silverstone

A “fed-up” Lando Norris said he “threw away” another victory after he finished third in Sunday’s British Grand Prix to lose further championship ground on Max Verstappen.

Norris drove well in the inclement conditions to position himself as favourite to land a maiden win on home soil at Silverstone.

But the McLaren driver was usurped by Lewis Hamilton with just 12 laps remaining after his flat-footed team were too slow to change him from intermediate tyres to slick rubber.

Lando Norris had to settle for third place at the British Grand Prix
Lando Norris had to settle for third place at the British Grand Prix (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Norris was then passed by Verstappen on lap 48 of 52 following a late charge from the Red Bull man. Norris now trails Verstappen by 84 points at the midway stage of this 24-round campaign.

“I am fed up of saying, ‘I should have done better’, and ‘I could have done this’ or ‘I should have done that’. I don’t care. If it takes time, I don’t want it to take time. We should be winning now and I should be making better decisions than the ones I am taking.

“I am not being hard on myself. Should we have won? Yes. Did we win? No. I lost more points to Max and I cannot be happy with that. We threw it away in the final stop.”

Norris has emerged as Verstappen’s closest title contender, and might easily have won the last four races.

A poor strategy call scuppered Norris’ hopes of winning in Canada last month. The 24-year-old said his sluggish getaway from pole position – where he dropped from first to third – at the ensuing round in Spain denied him another triumph. Norris then failed to finish in Spielberg after he collided with Verstappen as they duelled for the lead.

Here, Norris cleared Verstappen, pole-sitter George Russell and Hamilton to take the lead on lap 20, but as the track dried out, Hamilton, trailing Norris by two seconds, took the initiative as he peeled into the pit-lane to switch from intermediate tyres to the dry rubber.

Critically, Norris stayed out one lap longer, and when he emerged from the pits – after a sluggish 4.5 sec stop – Hamilton had taken the lead. Norris also took on the soft rubber which the McLaren driver believes left him exposed to Verstappen behind.

Norris continued: “The pit stop cost us everything today. We stopped a lap too late, and that is completely on me. That is driver feel and it is up to the driver to decide when to box, and Lewis did a better job. We also changed to the softs which is our worst tyre.

“I blame myself for not making the right decisions. I hate it. I hate ending in these positions and having excuses for not doing a good enough job. The one place I would love for everything to go perfectly is here at Silverstone, my home race, and it didn’t today, and that is very disappointing.”