Lando Norris pulled off a late overtake to take second place from Charles Leclerc at the 2025 F1 US GP – but the McLaren driver admitted he was “not expecting” to be able to get back on terms with the Ferrari after his first attack didn’t yield any success.
The Briton started in second, but lost out at the start as the Ferrari sweeped clean around the outside to take the place, which it would keep for the best part of 20 laps in the first stint.
Norris’ “regret” was about his starting position, not choice of tyres
Leclerc started the race on the soft tyres, and was the only car to do so in the top 15 positions. The raw grip of red-stripe tyre gave the Ferrari the grunt off the line to overtake the McLaren with relative ease into turn one.
When asked if he regretted his decision to start on mediums instead of softs, Norris gave a blunt response, explaining he regrets not having a better qualifying and starting from pole, in the clean side of the grid.
“Starting on the soft, starting on the right side of the grid, he had the advantage into turn one on the outside,” he said of Leclerc. “I mean, I regret not putting a perfect lap and not going purple, purple, purple yesterday in qualifying. I mean, you could do many different things. You never know what’s going to work out. I don’t think our strategy was wrong. I think we did a good job.
“Potentially, we should have looked back and see if we should have just boxed as soon as we got ahead of Charles [Leclerc] or just try undercut and see if that works out. But it was a long way to go on the soft, and then you put yourself under safety car risk.
“So, you know, there’s many different things that can go your way. Otherwise, I think we did a good job.I think we took the correct amount of risk in the position that we’re in. I’m happy and satisfied with the results as much as I would have loved to be a bit further up.”
A more “wary” approach to turn 1 after Sprint drama
Norris also revealed he was more “wary” of the risk of getting taken out at the first corner, following the disastrous US GP F1 Sprint race on Saturday which saw both McLarens taking each other out:
“After yesterday, obviously a little bit wary, I didn’t want to go too wide in turn one because I didn’t want to end up in the gravel again.
“So yeah, I kind of had to just stay on the inside and stick to the safe route. But Charles [Leclerc] did a good job and got past.”
McLaren were “quicker, but not by a lot” compared to Ferrari
Although he believes he had more pace in hand if he had clear air from the start, Norris emphasized that Ferrari’s pace was not “that bad”, given Leclerc could keep within six seconds of US GP leader Verstappen for most of the second stint.
He believes his McLaren F1 car was faster, but “not by a lot” in comparison to the Monegasque, which explained the difficulty he had in getting past, and why at one point he was “not expecting” to be able to get back ahead:
“I think I found it difficult enough just to get close to Charles [Leclerc], and their pace wasn’t bad at all. You know, until what, ten laps to go, he was like six seconds off of Max [Verstappen]. So it wasn’t like we were that far away or their pace was that bad.
“I think it was a good race. The pace was pretty close. I think that’s why it was so difficult is because we were quicker for sure, but not by a lot.
“And therefore was some challenging and lap after lap battles, trying to put him under pressure, trying to make him make some mistakes here and there – and he didn’t make many, for sure.
“But I think especially the final stint, I managed to get the tyres into a good window and drop back a few seconds, re-attack, and I managed to kind of catch him a bit more off guard, let’s say, with a couple of laps [remaining].
“So a good result in the end. For a minute, I was not expecting to finish second. I thought he was just a bit too quick for us. But to get back into second and get past was perfect.”
Track limits penalty threat for racing is one of the “silliest” rules in F1
The McLaren driver was at a risk of getting a five-second penalty since very early in the race, after going off-track twice on his own, and a third time after being squeezed off while battling Leclerc on the exit of turn 13.
Norris said that the threat of a penalty made him a “little bit” more cautious over the remainder of the F1 US GP – although he was not overly keen on the principle of drivers potentially being penalized for normal racing circumstances, which don’t even mean a potential advantage, as was the case this time around:
“A little bit [more cautious]. I mean, the places which were easy to go off were turn nine over the crest of the hill and then the last two corners. I think I was on three strikes by lap ten. So I didn’t put myself in the best position.
“But then one of my strikes was because I was racing. I think that’s one of the silliest roles that we have is, you know, we’re invited to try and race. But if you race too much, you get a penalty for it. And I get track limits for trying to go around the outside and losing time to Charles.
“So it doesn’t really make much sense in terms of going racing. But definitely made my life a little bit trickier, especially like [in turn] 19. And with the wind, it was pretty inconsistent.
“It’s difficult to just be always on the limit and not make mistakes, which I obviously made a couple too many of too early on. But yeah, a little bit more cautious at the end because I knew I couldn’t afford a five second penalty.
“But I took the risks I needed to.”
