Lando Norris admitted that his own mistakes were to blame for his poor start to the Belgian Grand Prix, not any battery issues.
After starting from pole position, Norris would have had high hopes of climbing onto the top step of the podium at one of his favourite racetracks on the Formula 1 calendar.
Unfortunately it wasn't to be for the McLaren driver, who lost out to teammate Oscar Piastri who led home a one-two finish for the Woking-based outfit.
Norris conceded the lead of the Grand Prix on the opening lap, as Piastri eased past the Briton down the Kemmel straight and never looked back from that point onwards.
So What Was To Blame?
Several snaps of oversteer on the exit of the La Source hairpin cost Norris dearly on the run up to Eau Rouge, which definitely helped Piastri to pull alongside and ahead of his McLaren teammate.
Furthermore, a battery deployment issue prevented the British driver from accessing the maximum performance from his power unit down the straight.
But Norris highlighted one other key factor which made it all the easier for Piastri to snatch P1 away from him.
He told Sky Sports F1: "No. The slipstream, and we saw it already on Saturday. The slipstream, especially when it’s wet and especially when you’re the first car, you have to push through the first bit of water, which means the following effect in the rain like this is even more than normal.
"I didn’t get the best Turn 1, so I need to go and look at things. I had two snaps on the exit, and maybe that could have got me out of trouble. But I think it only would have given Oscar an even bigger slipstream to pass me.
"Like we saw on Saturday, it’s just tough to lead from the beginning. I’m not saying I did the best job, but it just seems like this weekend, it was a headwind down that straight and just pretty much impossible to keep ahead.
"Nothing to complain about too much. It was a good race otherwise. I gave it a good shot. I was pushing hard, but not enough," stated Norris.
More Mistakes During The Race
Having opted to put on the longer-lasting Hard tyre in his only pitstop, Norris was able to push harder in the second half of the race compared to Piastri, who was forced to baby his Medium tyres to the end of the race.
Norris may have caught and passed his fellow McLaren driver were it not for several key errors during his charge, including a couple of lock ups into the Turn 1 hairpin and an off-track excursion at Pouhon corner.
On this, the 25-year-old claimed that he wasn't too upset about his performance behind the wheel of his MCL39 as a whole.
He said: "I had a couple of lock-ups in Turn 1, I went off in Pouhon, I had a big bump. I lost a couple of seconds there.
"At the same time, Oscar made some mistakes as well. It’s just the conditions were tricky. I’m sure everyone makes mistakes like that.
"Especially for me, when I was trying to gain that time, I had to push. I couldn’t just chill. And when you’re playing on the edge like that, you’re going to make some mistakes.
"But that’s racing, that’s life. In a way, I’m not unhappy. I need to look what much more I could have done today. I felt like I still did a good job, I felt like I was quick, I felt like I was on top of things, but just lap one let me down," concluded Norris.
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