Lando Norris admits Lewis Hamilton is important after McLaren miss chance to win

Lando Norris said he blamed himself for making poor decisions during the race at Silverstone and ultimately surrendering victory to Lewis Hamilton, who did a “better job”.

McLaren looked set for a one-two finish after showing excellent pace in the wet conditions, but poor decisions from Norris and the team ultimately condemned them to third and fourth.

Lando Norris regrets missing out on British Grand Prix win

After another poor start, Norris was able to pass Max Verstappen as the track started to get wet. He and Oscar Piastri showed great speed not only to pass the Red Bull but also to catch up and pass the two leading Mercedes cars.

With the gap between the pair and the chasing pack widening, McLaren made a poor strategic decision to hold off the leader Norris and eventually send Piastri down to sixth.

Then later in the race, the team opted to stay out for another lap and switch to the soft tyres instead of the new mediums, a choice that saw Norris move behind Hamilton and Verstappen who was on the hards.

“I don’t make the right decisions, and at the same time I blame myself today for not making some right decisions, but I hate it,” he said.

“I hate ending up in this position and always finding excuses why I’m not doing a good enough job, but I’m still happy. I still enjoy it.

“I think we still do a lot of things right, a lot of positive things. But especially here at Silverstone, the one place where I hope things go well. It didn’t happen today, but I will come back stronger next year and try again.”

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Norris lost more ground in the title race to Verstappen but took time to praise Hamilton, who took his first win since 2021.

“First of all, congratulations to Lewis,” Norris said of his fellow Briton. “He did a better job in the end thanks to that decisive decision, so hats off to him and thanks to Mercedes because they deserve it.”

“It was tough and fun. It was fun to fight with these guys, these tough conditions you’re always on a knife edge and you risk a lot of things but you’re very disappointed today and as a team I don’t think we did as well as we should have done or well enough but it’s still great to be on the podium here.”

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