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Lando Norris believes a mistimed strategy call cost him the opportunity to score points in his maiden British Grand Prix.
Norris qualified in an impressive eighth place for McLaren, and followed this up with an impressive start. He battled with Daniel Ricciardo for the majority of the first lap, and came out as the victor.
The British rookie was running in P7 until just before the safety car, and looked set for a strong points finish. However, since he had committed to a two-stop strategy before the safety car came out, his team decided not to bring him for an early second stop, unlike Ricciardo.
Norris admitted that this call, in hindsight, was a mistake: "We made the wrong decision under the Safety Car," said Norris, quoted by Motorsport Week.
"We didn’t box when we should have done. Not gambling, but hoping a few more people would drop off at the end like Alex [Albon] did, but it didn’t happen.
"So, yeah, just in hindsight the strategy was the wrong thing but it’s not something we could have known as easily when we made the decision."
"I still stand by the team, they did nothing wrong, we just didn't make the right choices," he added.
"I feel like I did the maximum possible. It’s not the way I wanted my home race to go, but I’ve enjoyed this weekend and I’m looking forward to coming back next year."
Both McLaren and Norris will hope to end the first half of the season on a high, as Formula 1 moves into the final two races before the summer break. The team currently hold 4th position in the constructors championship, 21 points ahead of their engine supplier and main rivals Renault.
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