A deluge in the closꩵing stages at Sochi led to a frantic finale✤ and caused chaos as the drivers were forced to make a late pitstop to switch from slick tyres to intermediates.

Norris led the majority of the race and looked to be able to hold off Hamilton to convert his maiden pole position into a first-ever win, but a decision not to pit for inters proved costly as he struggled to🐭 stay on the track.

The 21-year-old Briton lost the lead to Hamilton after skidding off the wet track before eventually pitt🌠ing for inters as he dropped to seventh at the flag.

“Yeah I don’t know where to start,” a visibly emotional Norris told Sky. “Obviou🌊sly unhappy, devastated in a way, but I gue🌊ss we made a call to stay out and we stand by that call.

“Of course it was the wrong one at the end of the day but I made the decis💫ion as mu♊ch as the team.

“In fact it was more🌠 they thought I should box and I decided to stay out, so it was my decision, I thought it was the way to go.”

Norris was convinced he had Ham♕ilton c🔯overed until the rain started falling harder.

“I had the confidence befor🐼ehand, I felt capable of dꦓoing it for a while, but just a bit of heartbreak you know,” he said.

“F🌠elt like I did everything I could even when it got tricky at the end. I made a couple of mistakes but 𒈔still kept Lewis behind and managed to pull away a little bit.

“The laps I was out before Lewis boxed it was perfectly fine for the tyres I was on, and I got told the rain would be the same amount, so if it was the same amount I think it would have been the c𝓀orrect decision. But it obviously got a lot wetter than we as a team expected.”

Despite the obvious disappointment, Norris insisted he stands𓄧 by his and McLaren’s decisions. 

“I m🍰ean especially when it’s two laps to go, if it’s 20 to go you are maybe not as aggressive with decisions,” he explained.

“But yeah, we did what we thought I’m right, which I’m happy with. Of course it was wrong at the end of the day, but we did an excellent job al🉐l weekend, so I’m happy with everything apart from that one decision which we’ll review and hopefully not try to do again.”