Lando Norris makes frustration clear after ‘throwing away something that should have been ours’

Lando Norris pictured in the drivers’ press conference at Silverstone

Lando Norris admitted his frustration at having “thrown away something that should have been ours” at Silverstone, on another occasion where McLaren appeared to be in a position to win.

Norris finished third at his home race on Sunday after having led heading into the final round of pit stops, but a drying track combined with a slower pit stop for the McLaren driver enabled Lewis Hamilton to take the lead in the closing stages – a position he would hold onto until the chequered flag.

Lando Norris frustrated after potential British Grand Prix victory chance goes missing

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

While Norris has earned a reputation for being self-critical when not getting the results he feels his potential in races merits, he admitted that he did not believe that the final strategy call, to move onto soft tyres when a new set of mediums was available, was the correct one.

But with this having been his sixth podium in the last eight races, many of which in rounds where he felt he could have won either side of his first Grand Prix victory in Miami, the McLaren driver admitted his disappointment at not standing on the top step of the podium at his home race.

“I’ve heard that a lot lately, so I hate saying it again,” Norris told media including PlanetF1.com when asked if the British Grand Prix was a potential victory that got away.

“I mean, so many things were going well. We threw it away in the final stop. I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go on to the softs was the wrong one.

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“I think Lewis still would have won no matter what, so two calls from our side cost us everything today. So, especially here, pretty disappointing.”

McLaren and Red Bull appear to be being joined in their fight at the front of the field by Mercedes, with the Silver Arrows having won each of the last two races and Hamilton and George Russell having locked out the front row at Silverstone this weekend.

He expects the fight at the front to be an interesting one moving forward, but acknowledged his frustration at not having converted more opportunities for victories so far this season – as well as the significant progress McLaren have made to be in a front-running position in the first place.

“There’s many of us in the fight, so I expect it to be good battles,” Norris said. “I’m sure Ferrari, at some point, will get their act together and come back, but clearly we also weren’t quick enough today.

“I think when it was completely dry, the Mercedes was a lot quicker…so we have work to do.

“We still had a weekend where we’ve clearly been the quickest. We’ve always been there or thereabouts, but never the car, and I think we need to keep working as a team.

“I need to keep working on my own stuff and just try and put it together because there are still so many positives, there are so many good things and so many things in place – but frustrating when a few times this season we’ve thrown away something that should have been ours.”

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