Lando Norris believes he had the pace to fight for pole position and victory in both races at the Qatar Grand Prix, and is frustrated not to have challenged Max Verstappen.
McLaren left Qatar with a haul of 47 points to close the gap to Aston Martin in the constructors’ championship to just 11, with Oscar Piastri winning the sprint and finishing second in the grand prix. Norris was third on both occasions but went wide on his final lap of the Sprint Shootout and had to recover from 10th after having both laps in Q3 deleted for track limit violations.
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“I don’t know how much quicker Max could have gone in qualifying,” Norris said. “But I guess if I want to be honest with myself, I should have fought for two pole positions this weekend. And potentially two victories.
“I know it’s a big thing to say, but I think if things went well, if I just did a better job and didn’t make the mistakes I did… which is why I’ve been so frustrated, because I knew what was on the cards, what we were able to potentially achieve. And that was victories, both (on Saturday and Sunday). So I feel like it was a weekend of missed opportunities for myself to take the fight to Max and at least give ourselves that opportunity.
“There’s good things and bad things. I feel like I’ve missed out and didn’t do what I should have done and achieve what I should have achieved, but I’m definitely still happy with a P3. I can’t take anything away from that. But in the back of my head, I know I should have done more.”
Although team orders were imposed on the McLaren drivers late in Sunday’s race that Norris questioned, he admits Piastri had earned the right to finish ahead by virtue of making fewer errors.
“Whenever I got a bit closer towards Oscar, the dirty air was quite a big struggle,” he said. “Even with the backmarkers, as soon as you got within three seconds or something, you immediately lost time. Around a circuit where it’s so much about load and these long corners, as soon as you have a bit of dirty air, it’s a big struggle.
“So I think my pace was definitely a bit better. But it’s hard to know. And I mean, Oscar has done a very good job. He’s beaten me. He’s been extremely quick and he’s made less mistakes, and he’s come out on top. So hats off to him, too.“