"Hindsight is a wonderful thing," claims Norris as he reflects on his Suzuka race

Despite failing to win the Japanese Grand Prix, McLaren driver Lando Norris claims that Saturday's qualifying more or less decided the outcome of the Japanese race given the difficulties regarding overtaking at the Suzuka circuit.

McLaren looked to be the dominant force across the practice sessions, but reigning champion Max Verstappen beat Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the all-important qualifying session to take his 41 career pole.

Although Norris and Piastri made a good start, the Dutchman maintained the lead, and the two McLarens were unable to put Verstappen under real pressure in the opening stint.

The Woking-based outfit had two cars to attack Verstappen during the sole round of pitstops, but Verstappen and Red Bull were perfect. Piastri pitted first but the undercut was not potent, so he found himself still behind Norris after the only stops. The British driver had half a chance of grabbing the lead in those pit stops, nearly side by side with Verstappen in the pit lane and having to run across the grass as the Dutchman refused to yield.

McLaren finished second and third on a weekend when they looked to have the quickest car, but it was still a brilliant effort from the Woking-based outfit, which enabled them to further increase their lead in the championship.

Asked to rate his second place finish at the Japanese Grand Prix, Norris insisted that it was a tough race considering the lack of overtaking opportunities.

"Tough. I mean, I could see Max quite clearly for the whole race, but just couldn't make any inroads from that point onwards. So I think him in clean air was enough to stay in that position and he didn't make any mistakes. He drove a good race.

"So, I don't know, like he said, the race was won yesterday in hindsight, and I guess we always kind of know the better position you start, the more chance you have of winning. But I think our pace was probably slightly better, but not enough to get through the dirty air, kind of get into the DRS, and then passing is a whole other story because it's pretty much impossible to pass here.

"So yeah, I think it was a good race. We tried some things. Maybe we could have tried a bit more with strategy. Overcut or undercut—we just boxed on the same lap for some reason. So some things we'll discuss, but good points for us as a team. Decent points for me. Of course, would have liked a little bit more, but have to take second sometimes."

Pushed on to explain why McLaren elected to call his team-mate Piastri into the pits first, Norris said that the Woking-based outfit might have tried a different approach.

"I mean, we obviously planned some things beforehand and we kind of know what to expect. But yeah, hindsight is a wonderful thing. I think probably could have gone longer, could have tried going earlier, yes, but then you're at risk of Safety Cars and other things. So it's easy to say, “Yeah, you should have done that.” But if I box three laps earlier or two laps earlier and the Safety Car comes out, then we look stupid.

"So can't win them all and we take it on the chin. I think we've got areas to work on. High-speed we were very, very strong and I think definitely the strongest car out there. Slow speed—we’re quite a chunk off the Red Bull, and that's where we lost yesterday in qualifying. So we lost again consistently in the race today. So yeah, a lot of areas we have to try work on.

Reflecting on his incident with Verstappen at the end of the pitlane, Norris noted: "I mean, the guys just did a very good pit stop under pressure. It was our one opportunity to try and get a bit closer.

"I wasn't even trying to race Max, I was just trying to cut the grass like he said! Didn't even know he was there, actually. So no, nothing. He had the position and he had the right to do what he did, so fair play.

With the Bahrain Grand Prix set to host the next F1 round next weekend, Norris fears that the slow-speed corners at the Bahrain International Circuit might play into the hands of McLaren's rivals.

"I mean, it's always so difficult to say. Probably yes. I think after today, our weakness was the slow-speed compared to them. There's a lot less high-speed, so we’re kind of losing some of our strengths and we're going more into our weaknesses. Clearly, they're quick. You know, I feel like between Oscar and myself, we got a lot out of the car yesterday.

"It was probably a little bit more, yes, but both our theoreticals were not that far ahead. So Max is doing a good job and Red Bull seemed to maybe have caught up a little bit. But they've also not been that bad the whole season.

"When you look at Australia, he was fighting for a win. When you look at China, he wasn't miles away. And this weekend he's done very good. So I expect him to be challenging us every weekend.