Lando Norris rued a lost win at the Miami Grand Prix, adamant that McLaren should never have allowed Kimi Antonelli to undercut him for the lead.

While he may not have been able to keep Antonelli in the Mercedes behind him after the pit stop, he would have at least had the opportunity to try to fight for the grand prix win.

Lando Norris frustrated after Kimi Antonelli undercut costs Miami win

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As the opening stint in Miami played out under dark clouds with the threat of rain on the horizon, Norris was leading by 1.8 seconds ahead of Antonelli, with the drivers going long as they waited for rain.

But as that did not arrive, Mercedes took the initiative by pitting Antonelli first on lap 26, which gave the Italian the undercut advantage.

Norris came in on the very next lap, but the damage was done.

The two were wheel-to-wheel as Norris exited the pit lane, but with Antonelli’s tyres up to temperature, he stormed past the McLaren to take the lead.

Norris was able to keep Antonelli within his sights, but he couldn’t close the two-second deficit to launch an attack. The Mercedes driver claimed the win by 3.2s.

Speaking to 2009 world champion Jenson Button during the post-race parc ferme interview, Norris rued losing a shot at the win.

“We just got undercut. There’s no excuses other than that. We got undercut. We should have boxed first,” he insisted, adding: “I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today.

“But yeah, not the pace to get back past him in the end, so we take it on the chin.”

The reigning world champion went into more depth on the price he paid for McLaren’s strategy as Antonelli blasted past him as Norris came out of the pit lane.

“You always have to look at it and ask yourself the question: do you feel like you maximised everything today? And I’m unsure about that,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets in the post-race press conference.

“So, I feel like there was a chance that we could have fought better for it, just not simply letting him undercut us.

“I know he came and passed me on track because he had just the warmer tyres out of Turn 2, but we should have just never been in that situation in the first place.

“I’m not saying we would have won the race because I think Kimi drove an excellent race and his pace was very strong, especially his pace end of stints was incredibly strong.

“So, he might have still passed me later on in the second stint if we boxed earlier, but at least we would have given ourselves a fighting chance, and we didn’t give that to ourselves.

“So I’m a little bit disappointed by that.”

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McLaren team boss reveals several factors were in play

However, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes it was more than just the timing of the pit stop.

He revealed several factors that were in play from the actual stop to a slowish 2.8s with Norris a bit too far forward in the pit box. The driver’s in-lap also wasn’t as fast as Antonelli’s.

“I feel the timing of the pit stop was the decisive factor,” he told the media.

“But at the same time, we should be careful that we don’t only see it from a strategic point of view, because you have the timing of the pit stop, but then we lost time in the pit lane, which is an execution aspect.

“It is a combination of the driver stopping in the pit box, and then we have the in-lap, and we lost some time on the in-lap.

“It was very difficult, even if Lando was ahead at the pit exit, Antonelli was coming with hot tyres, he had the ideal racing line, so I don’t think there was anything we could have done.

“Once we saw that the pit-stop wasn’t perfect, we lost time in the pit lane, and we saw that the in-lap wasn’t going to be very good, we knew that with Antonelli coming with hot tyres, it would have been very difficult [to retain the lead], so it was a combination of factors which compounded it.”

For Stella, though, what was abundantly clear was that McLaren still need to find time from the MCL40.

“I think for me the main takeaway, in addition to the operational review that we will always do, is that we need another couple of tenths in the car and then things will get a little easier. So that’s the main aim that we have to focus on.”

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