After the safety car came out in lap 7, McLaren chose not to bring in either Norris or Oscar Piastri in a move that ultimately cost them the win.
While Piastri was left “speechless”, Norris instead was hesitant to blame McLaren’s strategy team, insisting they did what they thought was best at the time.
“We could have done many things differently but we didn’t,” he told the media after the race. “We thought we did what was correct so nothing wrong.
“I still had a long race ahead of me so I had to focus and do my best.
“Both of us should have [pitted] and I would have had it hard either way as we would have double stacked and potentially I would have lost time.
“But something we’re all going to talk about and review. I also have to have faith that the team are making the right call and that’s what I had today.”
In another universe, Norris would already be a World Champion but McLaren’s error in Qatar along with a technical disqualification last time out in Las Vegas means Verstappen is now 12 points away with one race to go.
Despite the Dutchman drawing ever close, Norris instead said he was “still happy” with how things are going.
“It’s 12 points,” he said. “Nothing I can do about it. Obviously, not our greatest day, not our greatest weekend, but if anyone saw the run of results I had before that, you know, we’re great.
“So I put myself in this position. I’m still happy. It wasn’t our finest day, wasn’t my finest weekend in terms of driving and putting things together.
“But that’s life. Everyone has bad weekends. So I take it on the chin. We will take it on the chin, and we see what we can do.”
