Lando Norris felt that McLaren lacked “pace” to fight for victory at 2025 Italian Grand Prix.
Norris had topped FP2 and FP3 but was denied pole by just 0.077s from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and after briefly having led from laps 2-4 following a shove from Verstappen off the line at the start, he couldn’t handle the Dutchman’s pace.
A slow pit stop on lap 47 saw Norris slip to third behind his teammate and title rival, Oscar Piastri who gave the second-placed position back on lap 49, with the Brit now 31 points behind the Aussie but glad to still be on the podium.
“We just didn’t have the pace to challenge today – one of the few weekends this year where we’ve not quite had the pace to win. But it was still a good race, and I enjoyed it. I did everything I could today.
“I had a good fight at the start – it’s always a good fight with Max – but he came out on top, and they deserved it this weekend. There wasn’t a lot more I could do, second was the best we could achieve.”
Team Principal, Andrea Stella echoed Norris’ sentiments as he added that the lack of tyre degradation made their prospects of victory a slim prospect.
“Today’s Italian Grand Prix was a close and competitive race that ultimately came down to car pace around Monza.
“We saw this reality in Qualifying, and then also with the added layer of there being no degradation advantage for the team in the first stint of the race, from there it was going to be challenging to achieve a victory.”
Stella addressed the team order to switch Piastri and Norris around after their pit stops due to Piastri having only stopped first to cover off Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, but iterated that they were free to race after the swap.
“We also saw the values and principles we have in our team culture, with Oscar giving the position back to Lando before they were allowed to race again until the Chequered Flag.”