Lando Norris admitted “I just want to go to bed” after a disappointing fourth-place finish in the Qatar Grand Prix, therefore failing to clinch the Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship.
The Brit, starting second, lost out to Max Verstappen at the first corner after lights out, and after a poor middle stint, found himself out of the podium places, behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen made good use of an early Safety Car period to pit earlier than the mandatory Lap 25 maximum, and the move saw him leapfrog both Norris and team-mate Oscar Piastri.
The Dutchman duly took victory, with Piastri second, leaving Norris’ lead cut to 12 points, ensuring a final race decider next week in Abu Dhabi.
After the race, Norris, who immediately questioned McLaren’s decision not to box when Verstappen did, admitted the strategy call by the team was, therefore, the incorrect one.
“We could have done many things differently, but we didn’t, and we thought we did what was correct, so… nothing wrong,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
Asked to confirm his assertion that he should have pitted on Lap 8, as Verstappen did, Norris confessed that “both of us should have done,” adding: “I would have been cut over either way because we would have double-stacked and potentially I would have lost time.
“A bit of time, I probably wouldn’t have lost a position, I don’t think. But yeah, it’s something we’re all going to talk about and review.
“You know, I also have to have faith that the team are making the right call and that’s what I had to do.”
Asked if the team had yet given him an explanation, Norris replied: “No, I just got out of the car.”
Norris credits own recent form to still be in privileged postion of title-leader
With Verstappen continuing his blistering post-summer break momentum, there is a feeling of relentlessness in his once-impossible quest to retain the Drivers’ Championship.
Asked how it feels to feel the Red Bull man closing in at such a rate, Norris conveyed that there is no change in feeling from him, admitting he wanted out of the Losail International Circuit.
“It’s the same as every weekend,” he said. “I try and beat them, they try to beat me. It’s nothing different. I just want to go to bed.
Norris was able to see the bright side of his situation, taking the view that his own stunning form over recent races has seen him placed in a position where he is still leading the championship, albeit by a lesser amount, but still something seeming impossible just a matter of weeks before.
“Nothing I can do about it,” he said. “Obviously, not our greatest day, not our greatest weekend. But if anyone saw the run of results I had before that, it was great.
“I put myself in this position. I’m still happy. It wasn’t our finest day, it wasn’t my finest weekend in terms of driving and putting things together.
“But that’s life. Everyone has bad weekends. I take it on the chin, we all take it on the chin and we’ll see what we can do next weekend.”
READ MORE – Oscar Piastri left ‘speechless’ after McLaren strategy blunder costs him F1 Qatar GP victory
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