Norris had began from the entrance after a superb exhibiting in Friday’s moist qualifying session, but it surely all went mistaken at Flip 1 of the dash race after he got here off worse in a side-by-side tussle with Lewis Hamilton.
Having misplaced floor away from the grid, he discovered himself on the filth on the skin of the lengthy right- hand first nook. And, after immediately dropping grip, he ran large and dropped down the order.
Whereas he was able to recover and finished sixth, Norris clearly felt he ought to have carried out higher.
Talking over the group radio after the chequered flag, Norris mentioned: “Yeah, I f***** up Flip 1, my dangerous. I simply fully misplaced the automotive, so apologies. Ought to have scored some extra factors than that.”
However McLaren boss Andrea Stella moved shortly to say that reasonably than the motive force apologising, it was the group that must be saying sorry for not giving him a automotive that was higher in a position to combat for wins.
“Definitely he would not have to apologise as a result of we’d like his apologies [for the car],” Stella instructed Sky Sports activities F1.
“He is aware of that he may have carried out higher, however we recognize the utmost effort and we work as a group. And in addition this simply offers a way of the type of particular person he’s.
“He feels, I am positive, like ‘I’ve upset the group.’ [But] don’t fret, Lando, you have not upset the group. We have to provide you with a greater automotive after which all issues will develop into a lot simpler, reasonably than at all times being on the restrict to deliver on some vital outcomes.
“So it is extra as much as us, and the women and men at McLaren are working onerous to enhance the automotive.”
Whereas Norris would seemingly have had an opportunity to combat Hamilton for the lead early on if he had had a greater first nook, he doubted that he would have in the end been in a position to stave off eventual winner Max Verstappen.
“Yeah, no likelihood,” he mentioned when requested if the win had been on the desk. “Possibly it may have been one or two positions larger. However that was it.
“I feel the Mercedes had superb tempo right now. George [Russell] was catching us fairly shortly and Lewis had good tempo as properly. After which the Purple Bulls and even the Ferraris, truthfully.
“I used to be managing to outlive simply due to the DRS. If I did not have DRS, I used to be lengthy gone behind all of them. Our race tempo was fairly stunning right now, which we type of anticipated with simply how the observe is, and simply our limitations we have now on the automotive.”