Formula One F1 - British Grand Prix - Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Britain - July 6, 2024 McLaren's Lando Norris after qualifying in third place REUTERS/Andrew Boyers
SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) - McLaren's Lando Norris blamed himself after finishing third in a home British Grand Prix that he led and could have won on Sunday.
With Red Bull's Max Verstappen taking second place to Mercedes's race winner Lewis Hamilton, Norris fell further behind his Dutch rival in the Formula One standings at the season's midpoint.
The Briton stayed second overall after his seventh podium in 12 races, including a career first win in Miami, but now 84 points adrift.
"I'm not making the right decisions, you know," he told 2009 champion Jenson Button in a pre-podium interview.
"I blame myself today for not making some of the right decisions. I hate it. I hate ending in this position and forever having excuses for not doing a good enough job.
"But I'm so happy. I'm still going to enjoy it. I think we still did so many things right. So many positives. But especially here in Silverstone, the one place I would love everything to go perfectly, it didn't today."
Norris lost third place at the start to Verstappen, taking it back 15 laps later and then passing Mercedes' pole sitter George Russell, who retired later, and Hamilton to lead the race before the rain came.
When to pit proved crucial, with Norris coming in a lap later than Verstappen initially and then staying out longer than his rivals when the time came to switch back to slicks.
A slow 4.5 seconds pitstop on lap 39 brought him out behind Hamilton and Verstappen, on the hard tyre, overtook Norris four laps from the end.
"We threw it away in the final stop," said Norris, who added the decision to go to softs was the wrong one although he also felt Hamilton would have won ultimately.
"Two calls from our side cost us everything today. So, especially here, pretty disappointing."
Team boss Andrea Stella said McLaren had looked very strong when the rain started, with Norris and Oscar Piastri briefly running first and second.
"We then didn't capitalise on that, and it looks like a missed opportunity," said the Italian. "We'll review the calls we made. Some were good, others could have been better."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Christian Radnedge)
