Lando Norris, who started 4th at the Belgian Grand Prix, made a costly mistake on the opening lap by dipping his left hand side wheels into the gravel on the exit of turn one. It compromised his and ended any chances of fighting for the victory.
He dropped to P7, and the British driver had Max Verstappen on his gearbox by lap 3. They were seven places apart on the grid.
“I just misjudged it, honestly. I just didn’t want to get taken out in turn one, so I’ve left a gap and just misjudged the exit a little bit.
“I mean I lost four or five positions.”
Norris then got stuck behind Verstappen’s Red Bull in the second and third stints as McLaren got undercut at the first round of stops.
Both caught Charles Leclerc towards the end after passing Sergio Pérez, but no overtakes could be completed. Norris crossed the chequered flag in 6th, which became 5th after George Russell’s disqualification.
As Oscar Piastri showed once he got clean air, the MCL38 was very fast, right on pace with Mercedes in Spa.
“Just impossible to overtake. The overtaking sucked today.
“I think there were very few overtakes actually done on track. Most of it was just in the pit stops and there were some overtakes, but only when you had like a 10-up tyre advantage.
“Otherwise, yeah, a bit of a tough race with the overtaking.
“I felt like we were quick. The car was quick. I just don’t feel like we maximised what we could have done.”
Norris talks about how he is going to use the time in the summer break for a well deserved rest. He’ll also look to reset.
While McLaren has had an extremely quick car since Miami and Norris has generally looked very strong over a race distance, small but critical errors have stopped him from adding to his Miami GP win.
The 24-year-old is fully aware that he’s thrown away a lot of points recently.
“I think I just need it to reset. I’ve given away a lot of points over the last three, four races just because of stupid stuff and mistakes and bad starts.
“Turn one now. Yeah, so I don’t know why. It’s just silly things. It’s not even difficult stuff. It’s just turn one, trying to stay out of trouble, trying to make sure there’s a gap and not get hit. And then I put myself off the track. It’s just some stupid things.”
“The pace is good. The team are doing an amazing job, so I’m happy.
“In a way, I feel like I just don’t want to take a break. I just want to continue because we’re in good form.”
“Even today, I felt like the pace was very strong.
“But yeah, I don’t know. The last two, three races, I’ve just not clicked as much as I needed to and given up a lot of points, so hopefully I can come back stronger.”
Starts have been an issue for the Brit, and he pinpointed that as one area to improve, although Norris was keen to point out it’s many different things as well.
“It’s many different things. Yeah, it’s just different stuff.
“Obviously, my starts have not been great. I’ve lost probably a good amount of points off the line and now Turn 1 again.
“Easily a podium [lost], even more, so there isn’t one reason. It’s just, yeah, I don’t know, maybe just trying a bit too hard and end up paying the price for that.”
Norris remains P2 in the Drivers’ Championship. He is now 78 points behind Max Verstappen.
