Norris “should have won” F1 Canadian GP, “had enough time to box”

The Briton overtook both Max Verstappen and polesitter George Russell to take the lead of the race, and started to put over two seconds a lap on the pair in a bid to build up his lead.

His progress was nipped in the bud when the first of two safety cars emerged when Logan Sargeant hit the wall on the exit of Turn 5, where it appeared that he had missed the pit entry before the safety car was called.

But Norris’ explanation was contrary to this, stating that he had plenty of time to come in for a fresh set of intermediates and stay out ahead of Verstappen and Russell. Instead, he took an extra lap and this put him behind the pair in third.

“We should have won the race today and we didn’t,” Norris reflected. “So it’s frustrating. We had the pace, probably not in the dry at the end. It turned out that didn’t really matter too much, but we should have won today – simple as that.

“We didn’t do a good enough job as a team to box when we should have done and not get stuck behind the safety car. So I don’t think it was a luck or unlucky kind of thing.

“I don’t think it was the same as Miami. This was just making a wrong call. It’s on me and it’s on the team and it’s something we’ll discuss after.

“I think we’re at a level now where we’re not satisfied with the second. The target is to win and we didn’t do that.”

“It wasn’t the timing of the first safety car: I had enough time to box, and we didn’t box.”

Norris added that the later decision to keep him out on the intermediates for an extra two laps during the transition to dry tyres “helped me” and almost made an overcut over both Verstappen and Russell possible, but he ceded position to both while attempting to warm up his tyres.

Before Norris had explained the initial pit call issue, Verstappen joked that it was payback for Miami – where Norris pounced on Verstappen being picked up by the safety car to conduct a stop and emerge in the lead, which granted him his first race victory.

“Of course, it sometimes works for you and sometimes it works against you,” Verstappen reckoned.

“So this time, it was working for us. I guess in that sense, it’s 1-1 now this year! But that’s racing, it’s a part of it as well.”

“You try to remain as calm as you can be, and also [maintain] the communication to the pit wall, and them to you, to ask what are the conditions. I definitely think as a team, we did make the right calls today.”