Lando Norris makes damning Miami comment as Kimi Antonelli denies him | F1 | Sport

Lando Norris was adamant immediately after the Miami Grand Prix that he should have won the race instead of Kimi Antonelli. The reigning world champion finished second, 3.264 seconds behind this year’s early championship leader, who extended his advantage to 20 points with a third consecutive race win.

Antonelli held off Norris after overtaking the Brit when going wheel-to-wheel when exiting the pit after executing an undercut as the race’s round of pit stops took place. The teenager then held on to first place at Hard Rock Stadium and continued Mercedes‘ streak of winning every race to start this Formula One season.

Norris could not help but lament what he felt was a missed opportunity after crossing the line. He said over the McLaren team radio: “How did we not win this? We should have won, guys. Good try, good effort. Nice to see the progress. Well done, let’s keep pushing, guys. We can get back to winning, we can make it easier for ourselves.”

Speaking after the race, Norris said: “We just got undercut – no excuses other than that. We got undercut; we should have boxed first.

“Kimi did a good job. Hats off to Merc and Kimi, they drove a good race. Easy to make mistakes out there with the big braking zones and with these cars, but he didn’t make any big enough for me to capitalise on.

“So I have to be happy, I think, as a team, I think we have to be happy. I’m gutted to miss out on a win here in Miami, I think it was possible today. But not the pace to get past him in the end, so we take it on the chin, but it’s still a positive weekend altogether.”

Watching back the race-winning highlight with Antonelli and teammate Oscar Piastri, who finished third, Norris asked the Mercedes driver: “Where were you when I came out of the pits? I couldn’t see you.” After gesturing that they were side-by-side, the teenager said: “I almost crashed into you”.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella also agreed with Norris. He told Sky Sports: “We had an opportunity to win, 100 per cent.

“We were chased by a car (Antonelli) that was a little bit faster than us. We were monitoring the weather at the same time, and when Kimi pitted, his out lap was just mega. We couldn’t match it with our performance in the in-lap; we lost possibly a little bit of time in the execution. We could have done better, but we are very happy.

“We take all the positives out of this weekend. We are there, there is some new stuff coming for the coming races, so an exciting time ahead of us.”