Norris had began from the entrance after an excellent displaying in Friday’s moist qualifying session, however it 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 grime on the skin of the lengthy right- hand first nook. And, after immediately dropping grip, he ran extensive and dropped down the order.
Whereas he was in a position to get well and completed sixth ultimately, Norris clearly felt he ought to have achieved higher.
Talking over the staff radio after the chequered flag, Norris stated: “Yeah, I f****d up Flip 1, my unhealthy. I simply fully misplaced the automotive, so apologies. Ought to have scored some extra factors than that.”
However McLaren boss Andrea Stella moved rapidly to say that slightly than the driving force apologising, it was the staff that must be saying sorry for not giving him a automotive that was higher in a position to struggle for wins.
“Actually he does not have to apologise as a result of we want his apologies [for the car],” Stella instructed Sky F1.
“He is aware of that he might have achieved higher, however we admire the utmost effort and we work as a staff. And likewise this simply offers a way of the sort of particular person he’s.
“He feels, I am positive, like ‘I’ve disenchanted the staff.’ [But] don’t fret, Lando, you have not disenchanted the staff. We have to provide you with a greater automotive after which all issues will grow to be a lot simpler, slightly than all the time being on the restrict to carry on some necessary outcomes.
“So it is extra as much as us, and the women and men at McLaren are working laborious to enhance the automotive.”
Whereas Norris would seemingly have had an opportunity to struggle Hamilton for the lead early on if he had had a greater first nook, he doubted that he would have finally been in a position to stave off eventual winner Max Verstappen.
“Yeah, no likelihood,” he stated when requested if the win had been on the desk. “Perhaps it might have been one or two positions increased. However that was it.
“I believe the Mercedes had excellent tempo as we speak. George [Russell] was catching us fairly rapidly and Lewis had good tempo as nicely. After which the Purple Bulls and even the Ferraris, actually.
“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. So yeah, our race tempo was fairly surprising as we speak, which we sort of anticipated with simply how the monitor is, and simply our limitations now we have on the automotive.”