"Max Verstappen drove well, he got a bit lucky": Lando Norris makes his thoughts clear after a disappointing F1 Brazilian GP

Lando Norris was left cursing his luck after the F1 Brazilian GP, where the McLaren driver saw Max Verstappen drive through the field and win. The British driver had a scrappy race all along, which began with him losing the lead to George Russell at the start.

From that point onwards, both Norris and Russell were able to push through and extend the gap to Yuki Tsunoda in P3. The issue for both the British drivers came when the rain intensified and both made the call to pit for new tires. The call backfired soon after, as there was a safety car followed by a red flag.

This gave the advantage to Max Verstappen, who had started the race in P17 but, by not pitting, had climbed to P2, behind Esteban Ocon. After this point, Norris was left compromised as he was now in P4 in the red flag restart. He subsequently lost more positions and was unable to recover.

At the same time, Verstappen jumped Esteban Ocon during the second safety car restart and just drove away for the win. Talking to Sky Sports later, Norris felt that luck played a role for the Red Bull in helping him win the race. He said:

"I have faith in the team in what they are saying and they have trust in me. It was just unlucky. I don't care about the hindsight side of things, that's luck for them, nothing more. They got lucky on a rule that no one agrees with. Probably them they agreed with it but every driver has disagreed with it in the past."

He added:

"Today it benefitted then, it could have benefitted us if we just stayed out, but that's a stupid thing to think of. Just a bit unlucky today, nothing more. Of course, disappointing. [Max] drove well, he got a bit lucky but that's life."

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"George probably felt he won the race" : Lando Norris

Like Lando Norris, George Russell also suffered the same fate. The Mercedes driver was right in front of the McLaren driver when both pitted for fresh intermediate tires. Russell would suffer the same fate as Norris, as he would drop positions as well.

In the end, the Mercedes driver finished in P4, within shooting distance of the Alpine of Pierre Gasly. Looking back at the race, Norris felt that Russell would probably feel he was the rightful winner of the race. He said;

"All about position loss. We were just under the red flag with the free pit stop for the others, so unfortunate, nothing more. George probably felt like he won the race today and he probably deserved to win the race today more than anyone else but sometimes it's just unlucky and the rules go against you."

He added:

"So a difficult day, I made a couple of mistakes that cost me against George and cost me against Charles. Nothing more. It was a tough day, I did my best. I've had a lot of good races, it was about time that something didn't go right."

Lando Norris is now 62 points behind Max Verstappen in the championship and the title battle appears to be done and dusted at this stage.