Lando Norris fears McLaren have missed their best chance of a win

Lando Norris took another second place at the United States Grand Prix on Sunday but feared his resurgent McLaren team had now missed their best chance of victory this season.

The 23-year-old Briton has finished second five times this year and six times in a Formula One career that remains winless.

Sunday’s last second came when stewards disqualified Mercedes’ seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton from that position, long after the podium celebrations at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas.

While it was an unexpected bonus, with McLaren also overtaking Aston Martin for fourth overall, Norris was still fighting for the one that escaped two weeks earlier in Qatar, where he finished third after having started 10th.

His Australian teammate, Oscar Piastri, won the sprint at Lusail and finished second in the main race.

I think Qatar was our best chance to win a race. And I missed that one,” Norris told reporters. “I think there are no more Qatar-style circuits, and that’s where we are strong.

“If you look at the GPS and the overlays showing how bad we are at slow speeds, I’m not looking forward to going to Brazil. I think we’re going to be pretty shocking there.”

Norris took the lead from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, also later disqualified, at the first corner at Austin and led until halfway when Red Bull’s eventual winner Max Verstappen overtook him.

Verstappen then celebrated his 50th victory and record 15th in 18 races this season.

The Dutch driver stressed to Norris that the Briton had a good record in Abu Dhabi, which will host the end of the season next month after rounds in Mexico, Brazil and Las Vegas.

“Maybe Abu Dhabi, you never know. We’ll see. I don’t think they’re good for us,” said Norris, who is set to oust Germany’s Nick Heidfeld, today. now retired, for the record of the greatest number. podium appearances without a win.

The Briton is now 12th, with Heidfeld in 13th before his departure in 2011. Eight of the German’s podiums were second places.

“I think we did our best. I just want to hope that we can get good results and I think we can still fight for podiums, but these guys [Red Bull and Mercedes] are too fast for me,” Norris continued.

“We may look decent, but I think in reality we’re not at that level in general with these guys. So yeah, no big ones coming up, but Vegas, Abu Dhabi are probably the best.”