McLaren’s Lando Norris blamed himself after the home British Grand Prix that he had led and might have won ended with him third on Sunday.
Though Norris dropped even further back from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and consensus Formula One title favorite at the season midpoint behind Mercedes race winner Lewis Hamilton.
The Briton remained second in the championship standings after his seventh podium finish in 12 races, alongside a maiden career win at Miami last weekend but is now 84 points behind.
In a pre-podium interview with 2009 champion Jenson Button, he acknowledged: “I’m not making the right decisions, you know.”
Some of the right calling, but today I blame myself for not going. I hate it. I also do not want to end up like this and with excuses for the rest of my life because I didn’t try hard enough.
“But I’m so happy. I’m still going to enjoy it. Yet, I also feel we did so many things right. So many positives. But here in Silverstone it was terrible and that’s a circuit where you want everything to go perfectly.
He lost third at the start to Verstappen, reclaimed it 15 laps in and then overtook Mercedes poleman George Russell before passing race leader Lewis Hamilton when conditions changed for rain.
The key moment of the race was when to pit, Norris waiting a lap longer than Verstappen initially before taking on slicks and then going another three laps in comparison with his rivals when they pitted for second set at tyres.
A 4.5s slow pitstop on lap 39 meant he rejoined behind Hamilton, and Verstappen passed Norris four laps from the end with a hard tyre charge at him
“On the last stop we threw it away…softs wasn’t the right decision, but still Lewis would have won so either way you slice and dice it fine.
Our side paid a heavy price for two calls today. So, you know-particularly here-a little bit of a bummer.
During the brief period where Norris and Oscar Piastri were first and second when rain started, team boss Andrea Stella had suggested McLaren looked “really strong”.
The Italian said: “We then didn’t optimise that and the way things have gone in France it looks like a missed opportunity. Need to go over the calls that we called. A few were excellent, some subpar.
