McLaren’s Lando Norris slammed his race as “not good enough” as lost positions at the start prevented him from clinching the win in Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Norris pipped Verstappen to pole position, but his advantage was wiped out at the start as the Red Bull came alongside and George Russell swooped past them both.
Verstappen was able to overtake Russell into Turn 1 on the third lap and created a strong margin out front, but Norris was stuck behind the Mercedes in the first stint.
While he recovered on an alternative strategic plan to overhaul both Mercedes drivers to climb back into second, the Briton wound up 2.2 seconds behind Verstappen.
“The race, not good enough, simply because we should have won today. I think to answer the question you asked, Max, I think we had the quickest car,” Norris said.
“But I just lost it at the start, you know, and then I couldn’t get past George for the first stint. So I think we were quite easily at the best car out there today.
“I just didn’t do a good enough job off the line. And then that one thing cost me everything. So from turn two onwards, 10 out of 10, I don’t think I could have done much more.
“I think as a team, we did the perfect strategy and I was very happy with what we did. But yeah, the one part of the start, the 1%, I will swear, wasn’t good enough.”
Norris believes that his reaction time to the lights was on par with Verstappen but lost out on the second phase to allow the Dutchman to gain the critical inside line.
However, Norris acknowledged that the protracted run down to the first corner and the slipstream effect meant that Russell would have ended up leading regardless.
“I mean, my initial launch, I think, was better than Max,” Norris explained. “The second phase, the drive out, it was not as good. I don’t know.
“I don’t know anything more than that, apart from Max going alongside me. And let’s see, if George wasn’t there, I think I still could have kept on to first around Turn 1.
“But George had a run on both of us. So even if my start was one or two metres better, which I think was all I probably could have done, just the long run down to turn one, the slipstream from the Mercedes on both Max and myself was more than anything I could have done, you know, that I could have done.
“So I almost think George would have led no matter what, even if my start was two metres better.
“So in some ways, it’s just that’s what happens in Barcelona and George got a good start and I couldn’t do anything about that.”
McLaren elected to extend Norris’ race stints and the newer rubber helped him to displace Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, as well as Lewis Hamilton and Russell’s Mercedes.
Norris was made to work to pass Russell as their battle lasted six turns until Norris got the high ground and the former admitted that it cost him against Verstappen.
“It was a good battle,” he recalled. “It cost me a little lap time and hurt my gap to Max in the end, but yeah, it was pleasant.
“I was on the edge, it was close, I’ve been very respectful.
Norris claimed McLaren wasted an opening to win at the previous round in Canada, but he conceded that this race bugged him more as it came down to his mistake.
Asked whether this was one more frustrating than Montreal, Norris replied: “For sure, because that was more a decision, an incorrect decision or a lack of decision-making.
“We were definitely not the quickest car in Montreal. Mercedes was easily the quickest car.
“But today we were the quickest, we had the best car out there and I didn’t maximise it.
“The start’s down to me and doing what I get told and executing that. And without that, or with a good start, we easily should have won.”
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