Lando Norris's Championship hopes took a severe blow in Brazil, where he lost almost 20 points to Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver delivered an exceptional performance, starting from P17, while Norris, who began from Pole Position, seemed poised to finish ahead of Verstappen, who was at the back of the grid.
Unfortunately for Norris, the 69-lap race at Interlagos saw Verstappen excel with a combination of impressive pace, excellent racecraft, and bold strategic choices, securing victory. In contrast, Norris faced a series of errors and misguided pit-stop decisions. Most notably, the decision to pit as the conditions deteriorated, while a red flag was looming, cost him crucial track position and left an opening for Verstappen to claim the win.
Norris, however, does not believe strategy was his downfall at Interlagos. Reflecting on the race, he said, “You can change your tires under the red flag, that’s what the others did. Just unlucky, unfortunate—sometimes it just goes your way. Nothing we did wrong, I don’t care what people say. Staying out was not the right thing to do.”
He further expressed his views on the red flag situation: “It shouldn’t have been red-flagged—but obviously, there was a crash in the end which caused the red. That’s life sometimes. You take a gamble, it’s paid off for them. It’s not talent, it’s just luck. So yeah, a bit unlucky—that’s all.”
For much of the season, McLaren’s MCL38 has been the fastest car, while Red Bull has struggled with relatively stagnant development since May, often falling short of McLaren's performance. Nonetheless, Max Verstappen is now close to securing his fourth World Championship. Once again in 2024, Norris and McLaren came up short, while Red Bull and Verstappen rose to the occasion.