Lando Norris believes he got unlucky in the Brazilian
Grand Prix as Max Verstappen came through to win from his 17th-place grid slot.
The championship rivals had very different fortunes on
Sunday at Interlagos, as a poor qualifying turned into joy for Max Verstappen
while Lando Norris could only salvage sixth place from his pole position.
Lando Norris points out Red Bull’s red flag gamble
Norris, starting from pole position, lost out to
Mercedes’ George Russell off the line, and spent most of the first half of the
race sitting behind his compatriot as the weather conditions remained
treacherous.
Verstappen, having started from 17th due to an
unfortunately timed flying lap in Q2 that knocked him out even before his
five-place grid penalty for an engine change was applied, quickly carved his
way through the pack and latched onto the back of Charles Leclerc in sixth as
the race-changing events began.
Leclerc pitted for fresh tyres as the rain intensified,
while the Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Nico Hulkenberg getting
beached in the escape area at Turn 1. Attempting to capitalise, Russell and
Norris both pitted – just as the VSC ended.
This promoted Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen into first
and second as the duo took the gamble of staying on their intermediates,
waiting for either a red flag or for conditions to improve.
The red flag did come moments later as Franco Colapinto
crashed, meaning the race stopped and allowed everyone to change tyres for the
restart – meaning it was Ocon and Verstappen leading the way having been able
to change tyres for free, with Norris in fourth for the restart.
But errors would follow from Norris, as he went off at
Turn 4 before a more catastrophic mistake at Turn 1 on a later Safety Car
restart sent him back down to seventh. McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri
moved aside to let him take sixth.
With Verstappen winning by almost 20 seconds after
slicing his way past Ocon and setting multiple fastest laps, the result all but
ended Norris’ hopes of a maiden championship win – and the British driver
wasn’t in top form as he spoke to media after the chequered flag.
“Yeah, you can change your tyres under the red flag.
That’s what the others did. So just unlucky, unfortunate,” he said.
“Sometimes it just goes your way, you know. So nothing we
did wrong. I don’t get what people say – staying out was not the right thing to
do. It shouldn’t have been red-flagged, but obviously, there was the crash, in
the end, which caused the red so just… that’s life sometimes.
“You take a gamble, it’s paid off for them. It’s not
talent or, you know, it’s just luck. So, just a bit unlucky.”
Lando Norris: Fourth was the best I could do
Having embarked on the second half of the race in fourth
place, with everyone back on a level playing field, the McLaren man said he
felt this position was the maximum possible for him had he not made the
mistakes he went on to do.
“I mean, I still made a couple of mistakes in the end. I had
cars on my left, on my right, I locked the rears, and I went off,” he said of
his Safety Car restart.
“I lost two positions. So a little bit unfortunate, my own fault.
.webp)
