Lando Norris was left ruing his “stupid” mistakes after a tough race at Spa, which saw him finish sixth behind Max Verstappen and others.
Norris, who started fourth, had a promising shot at victory in the race eventually won by George Russell’s Mercedes. However, things went downhill quickly.
“I mean, we all needed it, but I think I just needed to reset,” Norris said about the upcoming summer break.
On the opening lap, he ran partially into the gravel on the exit of the first corner, losing three places. Shortly after, he botched a pass on Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, trapping him behind the Ferrari and allowing Verstappen to gain an advantage.
This mistake meant Norris had to chase Verstappen for the rest of the race, ending up just 0.6 seconds behind as Verstappen fell short of beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Norris admitted, “I’ve given away a lot of points over the last three, four races just because of stupid stuff – mistakes and bad starts, Turn 1 now. I don’t know why. It’s just silly things. It’s not even difficult stuff.”
Despite the strong pace of his car and great work by the team, Norris felt like he gave up too many points, making these errors all the more frustrating.
“The pace is good, the team are doing an amazing job so I’m happy. In a way, I feel like I just don’t want to take a break – I just want to continue because we’re in good form,” he continued.
Norris explained that he misjudged the exit of the first corner, not wanting to get taken out in Turn 1, leading him to leave a gap and ultimately end up off track.
Overtaking proved to be nearly impossible at Spa, where Russell’s one-pitstop strategy secured him the victory. Norris commented, “The overtaking sucked today. I think there were very few overtakes actually done on track. Most of it was just in the pitstops.”
Reflecting on the race, Norris felt the car was quick but lamented that they didn’t maximize their potential.
As Norris heads into the summer break, he hopes to reset and come back stronger, determined to cut down on mistakes and secure better finishes in the future.
