We were "the quickest out there", says Norris after fractionally missing out on another victory
McLaren driver Lando Norris felt after the Barcelona race that he missed out on another victory, altough McLaren displayed the most convincing performance at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Lando Norris took his second pole position of his career on Saturday. However, he lost the lead at the start as both Max Verstappen and George Russell overtook him into Turn 1.
McLaren then put Norris on an offset strategy which meant that, similarly to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, he pitted later than his rivals on both occasions.
While he diplayed a brilliant comeback on fresh tyres, he was unable to reach Max Verstappen by the end of the race.
"A frustrating start, simple as that. I lost a little bit to Max, he wasn’t completely alongside but with George on the outside, I didn’t have room to manoeuvre and that had me over.
"It’s disappointing, but there are still a lot of positives to take away from Barcelona. We come away with a lot of points and the car was amazing today, I think we were the quickest out there, so a big thanks to the entire team for their efforts throughout the weekend.
"We’re now focusing on Austria and Silverstone, two of my favourite circuits and tracks where we have a good record, so I’m excited. We’re in a good spot and doing well each week, I just need to tidy up a few little bits in the upcoming races," noted the Briton.
His team-mate Oscar Piastri had a tough weekend. The Australian appeared to lack pace on Friday compared to his team-mate Lando Norris.
Although he was able to up his pace for qualifying, he made mistakes on both his hot laps in Q3, and started the race only from P9. He managed to gain two spots to finish the Spanish Grand Prix in P7, but he looked to lack race pace compared to Norris.
"P7 rounds off a tough weekend. I think the race today was a positive to take away, but overall, a challenging few days in Spain.
"Obviously, Qualifying was the biggest frustration and made things very difficult going into the race. I think we did some good things on strategy, trying to pull ourselves up but ultimately didn’t quite have the pace this weekend but we’ll go again next week in Austria."
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella could not hide his frustration after Lando Norris missed out on a potential victory at Barcelona.
"When you start from pole position gained on merit, it’s always a little disappointing not being able to convert it into a race win, but actually, the race today was decided by some details, in particular the fact that we couldn’t keep the first position at the first corner.
"But Lando was careful, and there was not much we could do with Russell gaining through the slipstream and Verstappen having the inside into corner one.
"From there, we lost a bit of time in the first stint, but actually, thanks to the strong pace of the car and a very good strategy, we recovered most of this time, and we were close to Max once again at the end of the race.
Commenting on Piastri's tough race at Barcelona, Stella noted: "On Oscar’s side, it’s good that we could recover some of the positions and score important points for the team in our quest in the Championship.
"I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the teams, the FIA, F1 and the local services that showed a great sense of support and gave their assistance when we lost access to the Team Hub during the race weekend. That was very much appreciated and showed a strong sense of community, which I would like to applaud and remark," commented the Italian.
