Lando Norris has admitted that his McLaren team were "not ready" to win this year's Formula One world title after Max Verstappen secured a fourth consecutive championship.
The 25-year-old needed to out-score Verstappen by at least three points on Saturday night in order to keep his title hopes alive but after a far-from-convincing race, Norris eventually finished in sixth, one position behind his nearest rival.
“The race was pretty bad... a bad day,” he said in his post-race interview. “A poor weekend for us.”
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Despite losing out on the title, Norris was full of praise for Verstappen. “Congrats to Max – I’m disappointed I’m out of it, but Max deserved to win it,” he said.
“He drove a better season than I did, he deserved it more than anyone else, Max just doesn’t have a weakness. When he’s got the best car he dominates and when he’s not got the best car he’s still just there always, always there to make your life tough and difficult."
Speaking to Sky Sports after Verstappen secured another world title, Norris was asked if he found the title race harder than expected.
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"No," he replied. "I didn’t even expect to be in the title fight. I was happy with how calm I was and focused I was. There’s definitely more pressure, more eyes, more nerves. You have to drive better and I feel like I have.
"Since Zandvoort I feel like I have done close to a perfect job. Always things I could have improved on but I feel like I have done a good job, especially this second half of the season.
"The first half, I don't think I was, or we were as a team mentally ready to be like 'oh, now we have to fight against the big boys and execute perfectly.' And we paid the price a little bit."
He added: "As much as we would like to believe we were ready, we weren't and we paid the price a little bit - but also it was us that was there fighting Max, no one else."
Thoughts on Norris' season? Do you agree with his comments? Let us know in the comments.
Topics: Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Formula 1, Red Bull Racing, McLaren
Jack Kenmare