Lando Norris telemetry data shows the start of his Brazilian GP downfall
Lando Norris went from 1st to 6th in Brazil, where did it all go wrong
Max Verstappen has struck the final blow to clinch his fourth consecutive World Championship after his comeback at the Brazilian GP.
The Red Bull driver completely outshone McLaren and both its drivers.
How the Brazilian Grand Prix unravelled for McLaren
Lando Norris, who started the race in first place and alongside Fernando Alonso as the driver who lost the most positions to eventually finish sixth, and Oscar Piastri was unable to take advantage of the MCL38’s superior performance to put in a good result.
Norris started the Brazilian GP race from pole position after a great qualifying. But his joy was quickly cut short as he lost the lead at the first corner to George Russell, who had a better start to snatch P1 from the McLaren driver on the inside with ease.
The McLaren driver was stuck to the back of Russell’s W15 for over 27 laps, but at no point was he able to attempt an overtake on the Mercedes driver. Oscar Piastri, meanwhile, was completely off the pace and stuck in P7, unable to do the same with Liam Lawson.
In a desperate manoeuvre on the inside of Turn 1 on lap 26, he crashed into the VCARB driver and earned himself a +10 second time penalty to his final race time.
However, Max Verstappen showed that it was possible to overtake without losing patience and in a matter of three laps he cut +2.2s off Piastri and overtook him brilliantly. No excuses because the low visibility and the spray was the same for everyone except Russell in the lead.
At the end of lap 28, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Nico Hülkeberg going off the track at turn 1. George Russell and Lando Norris took advantage of this situation just in the last seconds of the VSC to save some time at their pitstop.
The teams wanted to fit a new intermediate tyre to cope with the heavy, fleeting rain that started to drop over the Interlagos track, but without compromising the pace at the final stages of the race where the track was expected to dry out as the laps went by.
The Virtual Safety Car disappeared for a moment and Norris took the opportunity to overtake Russell. Immediately, the Safety Car was deployed due to the large amount of water on track. So far, it wasn’t bad news. And it seemed that both McLaren and Mercedes had made the most logical decision given the race situation.
However, what the pitwalls did not expect was that Franco Colapinto would made a mistake trying to regroup causing a red flag that put Esteban Ocon, Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly in the lead as they stayed on track without the option to take advantage of the VSC and that way being able to change tyres ‘for free’ in the pitlane before the restart.
Thus, with the red flag, Lando Norris dropped to P4 behind these three drivers and Oscar Piastri dropped to P8 as Pierre Gasly held on the track and gained seven positions.
From here on, Norris lost his temper and made several big mistakes in the rain. The McLaren driver went wide at Turn 4 on the restart and lost position to Russell again to drop to P5. Piastri managed to at least gain a position on Yuki Tsunoda to move up to P7.
On the restart after the new Safety Car deployed due to Carlos Sainz’s accident on lap 39, Norris went off again but this time at Turn 1 losing position to Charles Leclerc and his teammate to drop to P7. Piastri moved up to P6.
On lap 46, McLaren ordered Piastri to swap positions with Norris. With the Australian’s penalty, there was no point in keeping the Briton behind. However, it was to little avail as Lando could not find the pace to catch and overtake Charles Leclerc with 23 laps remaining in the race.
Norris finished P6, over 31 seconds behind Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri behind Yuki Tsunoda, unable to open a gap of more than 10 seconds to offset his penalty.
A day to forget for McLaren who, although it is true that they achieved a good result for the Constructors‘ Championship by minimising damage to Red Bull and gaining another seven extra points on Ferrari, it was a bitter pill to swallow as Norris’ chances of winning the World Championship have completely vanished in front of an imperial Max Verstappen.
Read next: Lando Norris claims ‘it’s not talent, just luck’ as Max Verstappen romps to Brazil win
