Christian Horner rubs salt in Lando Norris' wounds after critical McLaren blunder

Christian Horner believes that McLaren threw away a victory for Lando Norris at the Canadian Grand Prix by pitting him two laps after Max Verstappen at the final round of pit stops. The two drivers merged onto the track at the same point, but the Red Bull driver’s superior tyre temperature allowed him to pull away to victory.

Norris, meanwhile, was left scrapping with George Russell over second place, allowing Verstappen to scamper off into the distance and protect his tyres. From that point on, there was nothing that the 24-year-old could do to reel in the three-time world champion.

However, Horner believes that things could have been very different. "I thought we were in a much better window as the circuit dried out," he explained. "We were able to hold a consistent gap and then it was all about getting the crossover at the right time, because the first sector was pretty damp.

“And when you drive out of the pitlane, you lose a huge amount of the temperature. So, I felt like we timed that about right, going onto the medium tyre. And whilst Lando was able to capitalise enough to hit the 20-second mark, and it hovered around that, with each lap we did, the tyres were getting warmer and I was surprised they didn't cover after one lap.

"They left him for two and that was crucial as that gave Max another lap to generate the temperature. So when Lando did pit, he [Verstappen] had tyres that were in a window and was able to drive and pull out a three-second gap by sector one. So that timing was crucial."

Things could have been very different for Norris. During the opening stint, he allowed Verstappen and Russell to battle and wear out their tyres before pouncing and snatching the lead. From there, he opened up a gap of 12 seconds and was checking out by two to three seconds per lap before Logan Sargeant brought out the safety car with a spin in sector one.

While the McLaren star was understandably frustrated after the chequered flag, he was content with an 18-point haul for second place and noted that while the safety car had robbed him of a potential win, it had played into his hands just three races prior as he claimed a maiden Grand Prix victory in Miami.