Lando Norris missed out on taking a third victory for McLaren in the 2025 season, after he could not catch Max Verstappen for the victoryin Japan.
The Japanese Grand Prix was a relatively quiet race with only one position change in the top 10 places between Isack Hadjar and Lewis Hamilton.
Jacques Villeneuve felt McLaren was not bold enough with their strategy to beat Verstappen, having pitted Norris at exactly the same time as the Dutchman.
McLaren had briefly tried to find Norris a pit window before his stop, but he would have come out behind too much traffic. After waiting a couple of laps, Mercedes pitted George Russell which put them under pressure to respond with Oscar Piastri.
That meant Norris had to pit on the same lap as Verstappen, effectively making it a battle of the pit crews. Analysing the key moment in the race on BBC Sport, racing driver Alice Powell believes Norris did one thing he will regret.
Lando Norris will regret McLaren pit stop error in Japanese GP
McLaren managed to produce a quicker pit stop than Red Bull, owing to the latter’s use of members of its reserve crew after mechanics from the main had to fly back to the UK for a family emergency.
Norris emerged alongside Verstappen but as the pair approached the pit exit, the McLaren driver took to the grass and lost crucial seconds to the Red Bull. Powell thinks it cost Norris a chance to pile pressure on Verstappen.
“I think Norris will be thinking that he should have slotted right behind Verstappen [on the pit-stop exit], he had a faster pit stop by a second compared to Verstappen,” said Powell.
“It could have been a different story to this race if Norris did slot in behind, he would have been only a couple of tenths behind down into Turn 1.”
Max Verstappen closes championship gap to a point with Lando Norris
The net outcome of Verstappen’s fourth win in a row at Suzuka, means that he has now closed the gap to within a point in the Drivers’ Championship.
Considering Verstappen has not been happy with the Red Bull RB21 since the start of the season, it is a remarkable turnaround for the Dutchman.
McLaren has been the team to beat but their car is often on a knife edge in qualifying, putting their drivers out of position.
Norris and Piastri are also taking crucial points off each other in the title battle, with McLaren reluctant to apply team orders in Japan through fears it could impact them later on.
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