Lando Norris was 'praying' for intervention for McLaren F1 gamble to succeed

Lando Norris has described how he was "praying" for a late safety car intervention to allow McLaren's strategy gamble to succeed in the United States. 

Starting eighth, McLaren elected to run Norris on a one-stop strategy, with the favoured plan for cars around him being a two-stop as he cycled to second place in the closing stages.

On his worn tyres, Norris was being reeled in at great chunks by the two-stopping Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, who ultimately got past in a double-move at Turn 1, consigning Norris to finishing off the podium.

It then got worse for the Briton, as another two-stopper, Lewis Hamilton, came past, dropping him to fifth as Norris longed for a virtual or full safety car to allow a free stop and change of tyres - something that did not come until it was too late and Valtteri Bottas's Cadillac broke down with five laps to go. 

"We tried, and we were not there on pace or anything, so we had to give it a shot," Norris told media, including RacingNews365, of his one-stop attempt.

"If there was any VSC or a safety car, we were right in contention for a good podium, even P2 for a lot of it, so we were hoping, I was praying, but it never came.

"But I feel like it was a good race, the pace was strong, and I feel like I got everything out of it, so I have to be happy, even though a P5 doesn't sound amazing.

"There's not much more we can do. 

"The team was debating whether to box onto different tyres or not, and I was hoping to have a better chance with the hard tyre, but it just degraded, so it was more: did we want to box and be safe and box onto another set of tyres, or did we want to stay out? 

"We chose to stay out; there was no disagreement, and the team did a very good job on the strategy."

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Norris vs Verstappen vs Leclerc

In the closing stages, Norris attempted to defend against Verstappen before Leclerc also sliced past, dropping him off the podium - with the outgoing champion speaking of how clean air was aiding his push to stay ahead.

"I was just on way too old tyres, [Verstappen] had already done two pit stops, so I was still surprised that the pace was still very good at that point on the hard tyre compared to them<' he said.

"So I was quite surprised at that part of the race that we could be as strong as we were, but inevitably, as soon as he had overtake, and I had to use boost to defend, he was going to come past quite easily, so he did that. 

"And as soon as I have traffic on old tyres, then it is game over, and it's easy for everyone else. 

"Clean air was saving me a lot, and obviously I managed to keep him behind for a few laps. But just the degradation was starting to become too much on a hard tyre, so it was good fun.

"I felt like it was a nice battle. In the end, it was just impossible to keep them behind, especially with how quick Charles was on the hard; he finished P2, so I had no chance, but we gave it a good shot."