"If George Russell was in a quicker car everyone would be complaining that Max Verstappen messed it up": Lando Norris on losing the F1 Spanish GP

McLaren driver Lando Norris claimed that everyone would be complaining about Max Verstappen's start if George Russell had a faster car at the Spanish GP last weekend. The British driver could not take advantage of his poll position and lost out on the P1 slot to Verstappen and Russell, heading into Turn 1 in Barcelona.

A mistake at the start was pivotal as Norris was playing catchup for the entire race after the Red Bull driver passed Russell in the opening stages of the race. Many believed that Lando Norris had the faster car in Barcelona and should have won if made a better start.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Lando Norris too accepted that the start was critical but questioned if Max Verstappen would have gotten the same criticism had he lost out to George Russell. He said:

"Where did we lose the race last weekend and it was off the line, that is where we lost the race. It wasn't like I had a bad start. My start was not bad. I probably lost a couple of meters initially compared to Max.

"Max also couldn't stop George. If George was in a quicker car everyone would be complaining that Max, 'Oh, you messed it up'."

Lando Norris reviews the Spanish GP ahead of the Sprint in Austria

Lando Norris stated that he didn't believe that he and McLaren had the fastest car in Barcelona as compared to Max Verstappen and Red Bull despite finishing just two seconds behind the three-time world champion.

As per GPBlog, the 24-year-old said:

"After reviewing last weekend, I don't necessarily think we had a much quicker car than Red Bull. I looked quicker more often than not than Max because of my extended stints, having a decent tyre delta over him. I did like six laps in the first part and four laps in the second. And around Barcelona, that's a big difference."

He also gave his take on whether he could overcome the combination of Max Verstappen and Red Bull for the upcoming races and added:

"There's just a tiny little things I needed to tidy up. As a team, we have to do a slightly better job. But a lot of it was at the level that it needed to be. So we could go on and win some races."

He further claimed that he was confident that overcoming Verstappen and Red Bull was "possible with how the team are performing, how I've performed so far, how I'm performing at the minute. But we're against one of the best drivers ever in Formula 1, one of the best-performing teams in Formula 1."

For the first time in his F1 career, Lando Norris is P2 in the Driver's Championship with 150 points, two ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc.