Lando Norris stays in front
The second place secured in the Japanese GP keeps Lando Norris at the top of the championship standings. However, the McLaren driver now holds just a single point advantage over Suzuka winner Max Verstappen. After the race, Norris still appeared satisfied with the result, despite the MCL39 being widely regarded as the favourite going into the weekend and only Max Verstappen’s talent overturning that prediction.
In the press conference, while expressing satisfaction with his result and the team’s double podium, Norris nonetheless raised some doubts about the strategy McLaren employed. In a race that was expected to revolve around a single pit stop—as it ultimately did—many observers were surprised by the decision to pit Norris on the same lap as Max Verstappen, thereby preventing him from trying an undercut (stopping before his rival) or an overcut (stopping after). Especially considering that Oscar Piastri had already pitted before Norris, going earlier than the leading pair.
Questionable strategy?
“Maybe we could have tried something more with the strategy,” Lando Norris told reporters at Suzuka. “(We could’ve gone for) an overcut or an undercut, but for some reason we stopped on the same lap. We’ll discuss a few things, but it was still a good haul of points for us as a team.”
Looking at the race as a whole, Lando Norris was still convinced that the outcome had been decided during qualifying: “I had Max within reach the whole race,” he explained, “but I couldn’t make progress. So I think having clean air was enough to keep him in that position and he didn’t make any mistakes. He had a good race. The race was won yesterday, in hindsight. We know that the better you qualify, the better your chances to win. I believe our pace was slightly better, but not enough to overcome the dirty air and get into the DRS zone. Then overtaking is a whole different story, because here passing is practically impossible. I wanted something more, but sometimes you have to accept second place.”
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