Norris fails to capitalise on Verstappen's penalty: 'Mistakes happen there'
F1 News
In his quest to catch up to Max Verstappen in the standings, Lando Norris had a great chance. The Briton started the race from P4, while the Dutchman was relegated to P11 after a grid penalty. Yet, once they crossed the finish line, it was Verstappen who finished ahead of Norris and extended his lead by another two points in the drivers' standings.
After the start, Norris immediately fell back, and lost three places, as he ran wide exiting Turn 1. "I think Lando got a little distracted from what was happening on the inside and ran out of track. It's marginal things. It requires little adjustments here and there," McLaren's team principal, Andrea Stella reacted to Norris' race start to GPblog and others.
He continued: "Certainly we work with Lando, like we work with Oscar, to try and see all the opportunities in which we can improve individually, but also collaborate better to either be more prepared or to use better of our abilities and talents. So I think it doesn't necessarily change our attitude, but definitely gives us some elements to analyse as to how some of these missed opportunities manifest themselves."
Where does Norris need to improve?
The British driver now trails Verstappen by 78 points in the standings. Stella explained where he thinks Norris needs to improve. "For Lando, for instance, it looks like there's statistically some opportunities that tend to happen in the early stages of the race, so we need to check whether this is early stages of the race for a reason or if it's just random."
Still, the Italian is positive about McLaren's and his driver's future. "But like any other athlete or any other driver, I think Lando himself, with the support of the team, we have to think, what can I do better to make sure we capitalise on the good work we are doing. I think he was in a good starting position still. But then once we lost the position at the start with this low deg and difficult overtaking, we definitely made our life difficult," he concluded
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