09/19/2024

Norris’ third place at the British Grand Prix was the latest race where McLaren were left wondering what might have been after failing to fulfil the potential of the MCL38.

The 24-year-old could quite feasibly have won five of the last six races but mistakes from the team and Norris himself, have left him 84 points behind world championship leader Verstappen in the drivers’ standings at the halfway point of the season.

That gap could have been far smaller, with Sunday’s British Grand Prix the latest example of Norris being left to rue his race execution as Verstappen finished ahead of him and Lewis Hamilton took the home glory.

Sky Sports F1 takes a look at how many points Norris has possibly dropped and where things have gone wrong for McLaren.

Norris was leading the Canadian Grand Prix after managing his intermediate tyres well in the first stint and had opened up an 11-second advantage when Logan Sargeant crashed.

A Safety Car seemed likely and confirmed in time to give McLaren a couple of seconds to bring Norris in for a pit stop at a time when he would have retained the lead.

However, they sent him around again and Norris got stuck behind the Safety Car while Verstappen and George Russell pitted. The time lost behind the Safety Car meant Norris emerged in third following his pit stop.

Norris nearly overtook Verstappen when the drivers switched to dry tyres, but was forced to settle for second in the mixed conditions.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *