“I should have won”: Lando Norris rues bad start after missing out on second win of the season

McLaren driver Lando Norris was visibly upset and claimed that he should have won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday from Max Verstappen. The British driver started the race in pole position ahead of the three-time world champion but made a poor getaway to lose the spot to the Dutch driver and also to a fast-charging George Russell on Lap 1.

Despite recovering his ground later in the race and extending all his tire runs, the 24-year-old was unable to catch up to Verstappen in the end and had to settle for P2 in arguably the fastest car at the Circuit de Catalunya.

In his post-race interview with F1TV, Lando Norris rued his missed opportunity to win his second race in F1 and said:

"I should have won. I got a bad start. As simple as that. The car was incredible today. We were for sure the quickest. I just lost it at the beginning. Disappointed but a lot of positives."

"One negative and that kind of ruined everting. I know that. Apart from that, a good amount of points and thanks to the team because the car was amazing."

McLaren team boss gives his take on Lando Norris' P2 in Barcelona

McLaren CEO Zak Brown stated that he would not blame Lando Norris for missing out on a race win and emphasized the 'outstanding job' he did on Sunday after a bad start.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the American said:

“We definitely thought we could have won the race and Lando is disappointed that a win slipped away. But he has done an unbelievable job so I am not going to sit here and beat him up because he didn’t get the perfect start. The team did a great job, the car was mega-fast and Lando drove unbelievably well."

Brown also spoke about the progress made by the Woking-based team since the beginning of the season and added:

“Overall, if you say both cars end in the points and one on the podium, how can you be disappointed? We are excited for more races – the more races, the better as far as I’m concerned. We just have to keep doing what we are doing."

McLaren closed the gap to Ferrari for P2 in the Constructor's Championship as they added 25 points to their tally to sit with 237 points in P3 in ten races and two Sprints thus far.