Sunday, December 22, 2024

Lando Norris makes key Lewis Hamilton admission as McLaren miss win chance

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Lando Norris said he blamed himself for making wrong decisions during the race at Silverstone and ultimately surrendering the victory to Lewis Hamilton, who did the “better job”.

McLaren looked on course for a one-two after showing some excellent pace in the wet conditions but poor decisions from both Norris and the team ultimately condemned them to P3 and P4.

Lando Norris rues missed British GP opportunity

Having had another poor start, Norris made his way back past Max Verstappen as the track began to get wetter. Both he and Oscar Piastri showed great pace to not only pass the Red Bull but also catch and overtake both Mercedes in the lead.

With the pair creating a gap between them and the chasing pack, McLaren made a poor strategy call to pit just leader Norris and ultimately send Piastri down to P6.

Then later in the race, the team opted to stay out a lap later and go on the soft instead of their fresh medium, a choice that saw Norris move behind both Hamilton and Verstappen who was on the hard.

“I’m not making the right decisions,” he said. “At the same time, I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions but I hate it.

“I hate ending in this position and ever having excuses for not doing a good enough job but I’m still happy. I’m still going to enjoy it.

“I think we still did so many things right, so many positives. But especially here at Silverstone, the one place I would love for everything to go perfectly. It didn’t today, but I’m going to come back stronger next year and try again.”

Norris lost further ground in his title race with Verstappen but took time to praise Hamilton who was victorious for the first time since 2021.

“First of all, congrats to Lewis,” Norris said of his fellow Briton. “That crucial decision at the end, he just did a better job on so hats off to him and Mercedes so they deserve it.

“It was tough. It was enjoyable. It was fun fighting these guys and these tricky conditions are always on a knife edge and you’re risking so many things but a few too many let downs today and as a team, I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done or good enough but still lovely to be on the podium here.”

Read next: British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton makes F1 history with crazy ninth Silverstone win

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