Lando Norris left this Sunday’s (19) Belgian Formula 1 GP convinced that he had the pace to fight for the win. The McLaren driver stated that a series of setbacks, from the grid penalty to problems during the race, compromised any chance of fighting for the top positions.
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Norris qualified in third place but started only in 13th position after receiving a ten-place penalty for using new power unit components beyond the allowed limit for the season. During the race, he was also disadvantaged by the moment the virtual safety car was deployed and later lost even more time during a slow pit stop.
“The pace was incredible, to be honest. It was good enough to finish on the podium. Of course, everything got harder because I had to start from 13th position,” said the Brit.
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“The virtual safety car periods also happened at the worst time for us. They perfectly benefited those on Hard tires and came too early for me. But that’s something we will analyze, we’ll see if we could have pitted during the VSC. I lost 10 seconds because of that and another 5 or 6 seconds in the pit stop.”
“That added 16 seconds to my race time, which makes my life incredibly difficult. I don’t think we could have made our race harder than it already was today. The pace was good enough to finish on the podium or even win. It’s a shame we couldn’t fight for that.”
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