Lando Norris believes two key calls cost him victory at the British Grand Prix, after losing out to Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in the final laps.
The British driver was leading midway through the race when rain hit the track, causing polesitter George Russell and Hamilton to struggle in the greasy conditions.
Norris had a comfortable margin as the rain intensified and teams switched to the Intermediate tyre, however, it was only for a short while before the track dried up and caused them to wear.
Mercedes chose to pit Hamilton a lap earlier than Norris, going for a set of used soft tyres. Norris’ engineer, Will Joseph, asked if he wanted to go for the same tyre or a new medium, with the Briton choosing the latter.
Hamilton had gained a lot of time on his out-lap compared to Norris who struggled on the Intermediates, then when the McLaren driver pitted he cost himself even more time by overshooting his pit box.
Lando Norris pinpoints two key moments British GP was lost
When McLaren finished their stop it was a full two seconds slower than usual, which was exactly the gap when Norris emerged behind Hamilton at the pit exit and relinquished the lead.
Max Verstappen had pitted the same lap as Hamilton and was setting blistering pace on a new set of hard tyres. This enabled him to catch up to Norris in the closing stages, who was having to manage his set of soft tyres.
Speaking in the drivers’ press conference, Norris felt the decision to switch to the soft tyre was pivotal in the outcome of his race.
“So many things were going well. We threw it away in the final stop. So one lap, but also I don’t think it was a lap,” said Norris.
“Even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go into the softs was the wrong one. Lewis still would have won no matter what. So two calls from our side cost us everything today.”
Lando Norris and McLaren’s strategy cost them another victory
It is another race win that has got away for Norris after he comfortably showed he had the pace to win in front of the home crowd at Silverstone, but fumbled it when making critical strategic decisions.
Although he regained the ground he lost at the start of the race to Verstappen, failing to pit at the right time as the Intermediate tyres started to wear excessively ultimately cost him and the decision to switch to used softs.
Teammate Oscar Piastri made the right call in switching to a new set of mediums, something the McLaren pit wall probably regretted in the closing stages: the Austrailian was lapping half a second quicker than Norris.
On two out of three race weekends, Norris has made unforced errors that have prevented him from winning, with Austria being executed well up until the contact racing Verstappen.
That performance will require some introspective from Norris and McLaren to work out where they are going wrong, considering both stand a chance of heading into the summer break and cutting the points deficit to Verstappen and Red Bull in the title race.
The post ‘Cost us everything’: Lando Norris shares the ‘two calls’ that cost him victory at the British GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
