Norris’s safety-car hope came too late to rescue McLaren’s one-stop gamble

Lando Norris said McLaren’s one-stop strategy at the United States Grand Prix left him hoping for a VSC or safety car to put a podium back within reach. The intervention came too late: after reaching second in the closing stages, he finished fifth.

Starting eighth, McLaren ran Norris on one stop while the favoured plan for cars around him was two stops. Norris said the team lacked pace and had to take a chance. A VSC or safety car, he said, could have let him pit for free and kept him in contention for a podium.

Norris said clean air helped him hold Max Verstappen behind for a few laps, but the hard tyre was degrading too much. Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, both on two-stop strategies, passed in the closing stages; Lewis Hamilton followed, dropping Norris to fifth.

The hoped-for opportunity came only after Valtteri Bottas’s Cadillac broke down with five laps remaining, too late to change Norris’s result. Norris said McLaren had discussed whether to pit for another set of tyres but chose to stay out. He said there was no disagreement and praised the strategy. Despite fifth place, he said he was happy with his race and felt he had got everything out of it.