McLaren have “no regrets” over pitting Lando Norris just before red flag

McLar♐en stand by their decision to pit Lando Norris just before a red flag came out - which partly ruined his race.

Lando Norris in the pit lane
Lando Norris in the pit lane

McLaren have no regrets over the timing of their decision to pit 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris at the F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris started from pole position hoping to capitalise on title rival 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen starting down in 17th to ౠmake further gains in the championship, but the race did not go as planned for the McLaren driver.

After losing the lead to Mercedes’ 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell at the sta🌼rt, both drivers lost out when they stopped for fresh intermediate tyres just as a Virtual Safety Car ended. A red flag a few laps later hampered them further, enabling those who had not pitted - including Verstappen - to make a free tyre change.

Verstappen took full advantage to complete 🥂a brilliant comeback victory, while Norris slipped to sixth at the chequered flag - a result which effectively ends his faltering title hopes.

“There’s a few things🔯 we need to look into from our side,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella told Viaplay.

“We have to saꦿy that some of the positions we lost with the red flag, we felt it was the righ⛄t thing to pit when so much water was coming. And we don’t regret that.

“It was a cautious pi🍒t stop. It ultimately paid for the cars behind us that took a bi♍t of risk of staying out, and then the red flag kind of reset the race. So some learning to take on board, but also some positives.”

💧Stella added: “Obviously, w🐬hen you start in pole position, you always hope that you can finish P1. The race has been very eventful and some of the events didn’t play to our favour and this means that actually we finished far from the podium. But still with good points.

“It was important to stay in the race. If we look at the constructors’ championship, it’s important th💜at we out-score Ferrari and this sets the situation strongly for the final part of the season.”

Norris said Verstappen “got a bit lucky” with a rule “no one agrees with” and insisted it would have been “stupid”ꦉ for him to stay ou♔t in the worsening conditions.

"I have faith in the team in what they are saying and th😼ey have trust in me,” Norris 𒉰told Sky Sports F1.

"It was just💃 unlucky. I don't care about the hindsight side of things, that's luck for them, nothing more. They [Red Bull] got lucky on a rule that no one agrees with. Probably they agreed with it today but every driver has disagreed with it in the past.

"Today it benefitted them, it could have benefitted us if we jಌust stayed out, b🍸ut that's a stupid thing to think of. Just a bit unlucky today, nothing more. Of course, disappointing."

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