A dejected Lando Norris lamented McLaren’s strategy calls and his own shortfall for squandering a golden chance at victory in Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
Norris led the event for 19 laps, initially taking control from George Russell and Lando Norris when the Mercedes duo started to struggle with the wet track conditions when light rain rain started to fall.
But he lost the lead on lap 39 when the track started to dry up following a second burst of rain, and cars pitted to put slicks back on as the inters started to overheat and degrade.
Norris stayed out a lap longer than Hamilton and Max Verstappen, allowing Hamilton to take back control. While Norris and Hamilton both switched to soft tyres, Verstappen gambled on the hard compound which proved the better choice.
Norris was not only unable to catch Hamilton in the laps remaining, he lost out to Verstappen at Stowe with four laps to go leaving him trailing the Red Bull to the finish line in third place rather than the hoped for home victory.
“First of all, congrats to Lewis," Norris said when questioned by the media in parc ferme "That crucial decision at the end, he just did a better job on, so hats off to him and Mercedes. They deserve it.
"Two calls from our side cost us everything today. Especially here, it's pretty disappointing," he said. "I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions.
"As a team I don’t think we did quite the job we should have done, or good enough," he suggested. "So many things were going well, and we threw it away in the final stop.
"It was one lap, but also I don't think it was just the lap," he sighed. "I think even if I boxed on the perfect lap, our decision to go onto the soft was the wrong one, and I think Lewis still would have won no matter what.
"I hate it," he continued. "I hate ending in this position and having excuses for not doing a good enough job. Especially here in Silverstone, the one place I would love for everything to go perfectly. It didn’t today.
"But I’m still happy," he insisted. “It was tough, it was enjoyable, it was fun battling these guys. These tricky conditions are always on a knife-edge, and you’re risking a lot so many things were good.
"[There were] a few too many letdowns," he pointed out. "It's frustrating a few times this season we've thrown away something that should've been ours."
"We weren't quick enough today, I think. When it was completely dry, the Mercedes was a lot quicker. Maybe we seemed a bit better [in the wet] but we have work to do.
"We've still not had the weekend where we've clearly been the quickest," he proposed. "We've always been thereabouts, and there are battles, but [we've] never had 'the' car.
"I’m still going to enjoy it. It's lovely to be on the podium here," he added. "We’ll come back stronger next year and try again.
"There are so many good things, and so many things in place," he added. "We need to keep working as a team. I need to keep working on my own stuff, and just try and put it all together."
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