A dejected Lando Norris was left to think about what could’ve been as the McLaren driver came home second after a safety car cost him the race lead.
Starting on a damp Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in P3, Norris made a clean start, maintaining position ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri for the opening section of the race.
His McLaren came alive in the laps that followed, picking his way past Max Verstappen on lap 20 before completing a similar move a lap later to take the lead away from George Russell.
Only five laps later the moment that would alter the outcome of Norris’ race occurred, a safety car was deployed as the Williams of Logan Sargeant made contact with the wall.
In a cruel twist of fate, unlike Miami where he profited from a well timed safety car, this time he would be the one caught out.
Norris was 10 seconds ahead of Verstappen in P2 as he crossed the line to start lap 26, only to find himself stuck behind the safety car, which had just emerged as he went through the last chicane. It allowed everyone behind to stop a lap earlier and gain all the time they had lost back.
Norris dropped to P3 behind Russell and Verstappen.
“I think a good enough job as a team to box when we should have done and not get stuck behind the safety car. So I don’t think it was a luck or unlucky kind of thing. I don’t think it was the same as Miami.
“This was just making a wrong call. So it’s on me and it’s on the team and it’s something we’ll discuss after. But we should have won today.”
From there, the frustrated Brit was not able to mount a challenge on Verstappen, not having the same pace he showed in the damp conditions when the track had dried out.
“So frustrating. We had the pace, probably not in the dry at the end. It turned out it didn’t really matter too much.
“But yeah, we should have won today. Simple as that. We didn’t do a good job.”
Verstappen, who gained P1 from the McLaren mishap, would lead most of the remaining laps. Norris finished a strong 2nd in the end following multiple fights with George Russell, 3.8 seconds behind the eventual race winner in the Red Bull.
Despite not being able to achieve victory this time out, Norris is confident in the pace in his car and has said to be excited to give it another go in Barcelona in two weeks’ time.
“I look forward to every track now because every every place we seem to be performing well.”
