McLaren’s Lando Norris suspects that he could have passed Max Verstappen to claim the win at Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with “one or two more laps”.
Norris was unable to maintain pace with Verstappen in the opening stint and dropped to eight seconds behind, but he mounted a late charge to close on the Red Bull.
Despite struggling with the balance of his Red Bull RB20 car on the Hard compound, Verstappen had enough pace in hand to prevent Norris from mounting an attack.
The Dutchman crossed the line with seven-tenths in hand over the McLaren driver, who reckons he could have replicated his Miami success with a couple more tours.
Asked whether he could have passed Verstappen with a few more laps, Norris said: “Yeah. It hurts me to say, but one or two more laps and I think I would have had him.
“It’s tough. A shame I fought hard right until the very last lap. I just lost out a little bit too much to Max in the beginning. He was much better in the first stint.
“And obviously in the second stint we were stronger.
“But yeah, it just was a tough first half and a much better second half. And one or two more laps would have been beautiful, but just not today.”
Heading into the race weekend, Norris had denied that McLaren’s substantial upgrade package in Miami had put it on a equal standing with both Red Bull and Ferrari.
However, Norris, who has now registered three successive podium finishes, has admitted that the Woking-based squad must be recognised as a genuine challenger.
“I think right now we can happily say we’re in the position of Ferrari and Red Bull,” he conceded. “So yeah, it’s what we have to get used to.
“But the team are doing a good job. I think we’re all doing a very good job. So it’s business as usual. It’s focusing on doing the same things.
“For us, it’s just we’re fighting for first or second now. So yeah, it’s still a surprise.
“I’d say it’s frustrating not to win. But after last weekend and the improvements we made, it’s what we should have started to expect.”
Verstappen has revealed that he was “pushing flat out” throughout the closing exchanges, but troubles with the tyres meant he could not respond to Norris’ lap times.
“I think on the Medium tyres we were quite strong. On the Hard tyres it was just a bit more difficult to manage,” Verstappen said.
“Especially the last 10-15 laps I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot. I saw Lando closing in, so yeah, the last 10 laps I was just flat out.
“It’s very difficult when the tyres aren’t working anymore, and you have to go flat out.
“So I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily we didn’t, and I’m super happy of course to win here today.”
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