McLaren boss delivers verdict over Norris MISTAKES in title battle

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has defended star driver Lando Norris following a damaging result at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Norris could only finish sixth during the main race in Interlagos, with championship rival Max Verstappen cruising from 17th on the grid to claim his first grand prix victory since June.

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This was despite Norris having a seamless weekend up until the main race, claiming victory in the sprint race and cutting through the chaos of Sunday morning qualifying to claim pole position.

However, the Brit leaves Sao Paulo further behind Verstappen than after Mexico, with the gap now at 62 points with just three races remaining.

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Norris had put himself in a good position early in the race, despite another poor start seeing him fall behind Mercedes' George Russell.

The McLaren driver was comfortable in second place, with a potential race victory looking achievable due to a pace advantage over Mercedes and Russell.

However, an unfortunately-timed red flag hampered both British drivers as they had recently pitted for fresh intermediate tyres, handing Verstappen and the two Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly track position.

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Does Norris make too many mistakes?

Norris has been accused of making too many mistakes during a 2024 season in which he has had a much faster package than Verstappen for a considerable percentage of the year.

Now, Stella has slammed 'unfair' criticism aimed at his driver, suggesting that both the team and Norris are happy with their progress throughout 2024.

"I think this is not a fair statement about Lando, as I said before," Stella told Sky Sports Germany after the race.

"First of all, I would like to acknowledge that Max is now the bigger favourite for the championship and he was already the favourite before. You have to be honest about that. He is a fantastic driver. He does a fantastic job.

"Lando is just behind him. We are proud where we are. I think Lando should be very proud of his performance and in a race like today, that can happen. It can happen that you have problems here and there. We managed to stay in the race. We will learn from it and we will become stronger and stronger.

"The dream lives for the season. Overall, we had such a great development this season and we are now taking the lesson from it. If we don't win this year, we will come back stronger next year."

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