Norris questions McLaren strategy, but felt Japanese…

Lando Norris says McLaren should have pitted him before Max Verstappen to try to defeat the Red Bull Formula 1 driver, but thinks the Suzuka race was lost in qualifying.

Verstappen safeguarded his lead from pole on the first lap, and the four-time champion then never really looked under serious threat from the chasing McLaren duo of Norris and Oscar Piastri.

While the McLarens were the quicker cars, overtaking at Suzuka proved almost impossible, and Norris and Piastri never found clear air to extract the pace out of the MCL39.

With the Japanese Grand Prix an easy one-stop race, the only real opportunity for Norris to leapfrog Verstappen came at the sole round of pitstops, but Norris then pitted on the same lap as his rival. It led to a tense moment as Norris came out alongside Verstappen, taking to the grass on the exit.

But with no real on-track chance to challenge Verstappen over the second stint either, Norris felt McLaren should have tried different tactics.

"Maybe we could have tried a bit more with strategy and overcut or undercut," he said.

"We just boxed on the same lap for some reason, so there are some things we'll discuss. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

"I probably should have just tried to undercut. The thing is there's always the safety car risk.

"I don't think I could have gone longer because then I think I would have lost a position, so that wasn't on the cards. But yeah, I think we probably should have just tried to undercut and tried something different."

Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images)

But Norris felt that even by pitting one lap earlier it would have been tough for him to emerge ahead because it would have taken Pirelli's hard tyres time to get up to temperature, rendering the classic undercut less powerful.

"Honestly, I think the undercut is not easy here because the hards are not mega in the first sector," Norris explained. "So, whether that even would have worked, I'm unsure.

"Max still always had a little buffer to me so, even with a good out-lap, I don't think it was enough to have passed anyway."

That led Norris to shift the blame for him and Piastri not winning the race to Saturday, with neither driver delivering a perfect lap in qualifying while Verstappen did, giving him clear air for the entire race.

"Max didn't make any mistakes and drove a good race - being in clean air was enough to stay in that position," he added. "The race was won yesterday in hindsight.

"I think our pace was probably slightly better, but not enough to get through the dirty air, get into the DRS, and then passing is a whole other story because it's pretty much impossible to pass here."