Norris knew he couldn't catch Verstappen: 'We were too far behind'

Following Sunday's race, Norris was asked what hurt him more: the timing of the safety car or staying out for too long on intermediate tyres? To this, the McLaren driver responded: "Staying out on the intermediate helped me, it helped me have a chance against George, so I overcut him," the British driver said. Nevertheless, he was critical of his own performance: "I didn't do a good enough job afterwards and he was clearly way quicker than us in the dry and even on the hard tyres, so that was completely the right call and a good decision from us to stay out." 

'We didn't do a good enough job'

Although in Miami Norris was lucky with the timing of the safety car, which led him to secure his maiden F1 win, it wasn't the same case in Montreal. "It's not the timing of the first safety car. I had enough time to box and we didn't box, so this was a mistake on us as a team, and it's just something we didn't do a good enough job with." After this, Norris knew he wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace of the Red Bull: "It takes a lap, two laps to warm up the tyres. So yes, I overcut him [Verstappen] and I overcut George, but you need a lap or two to warm up the tyres," he said. 

"We were too far behind Max in the first place. I probably pushed too late on that Inter tyre in the middle stint. It's why we stayed out because I was so quick at the end of that stint, but I probably just didn't push early enough," the McLaren driver added. "I probably could have got past George basically one or two laps before the pit stops and closed the gap to Max to give myself a better opportunity of undercutting or overcutting him. And we didn't do that," he concluded. In the end, Norris finished second behind Max Verstappen. His teammate Oscar Piastri finished in fifth. McLaren has been able to maintain their third-place position in the Constructors. After neither Ferrari driver finished in the race, they are now just 40 points behind them in the standings.