Norris let down McLaren with ‘worst start ever’

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Lando Norris feels he let down his McLaren team in Hungary, pinning his disappointing P13 result on a botched launch off the grid.

After lining up ninth on the grid, Norris bogged down when the lights went out and was swallowed by several cars on the run down to Turn 1.

The fumbled start set up the McLaren charger for a difficult afternoon during which he made little or no progress among the second-tier midfield pack.

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“The team did a good job. Maybe the pit-stops weren’t amazing, but they didn’t cost me anything,” he said.

“I think I was the one who let down the team in terms of probably getting the worst start I’ve ever got in my life.

“I just wanted to go forwards, and when you try to go forwards in the wet you go backwards. It was as simple as that.

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“I just screwed everything up, and it’s such a difficult track to overtake on that I couldn’t do anything more after that. I tried coming back, but P13 was the best I could do.”

©McLaren

The poor result contrasted with his twin top-ten finishes in Austria, including a sensational podium achieved in the Austrian Grand Prix.

“If I look at the big picture I think they’ve still been a very positive three weeks,” he added.

“I think the things I’ve really wanted to improve on as a driver, I’ve done much better at, but I’m still not the driver I want to be.

“I still made the mistake today, which probably didn’t cost me a huge amount of points so not the end of the world.

“But in the long run, you want to be scoring whenever you have the opportunity to, and I think today we had the opportunity to get one or two, which could prove quite costly come the end of the season.”

McLaren’s track record of finishing in the points was upheld by Carlos Sainz who clocked in 10th on the road but gained a position following Kevin Magnussen’s post-race penalty and demotion to P10.