McLaren point to Norris 'misjudgement' that lost vital points in Bahrain

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has acknowledged Lando Norris lost “important championship points” through his error on the Bahrain Grand Prix starting grid.

Norris started the race from sixth on the grid following a difficult qualifying outing, but a strong opening lap saw him progress to third place.

However, the championship leader was soon flagged for being too far forward in his grid box.

Norris was handed a five-second time penalty as a result which eliminated strategic options for his first pit stop.

The McLaren driver ended the race in third place as he struggled to pass George Russell for the runner-up spot in the final laps - however Stella believes second place would have been for the taking without the mistake.

“Lando was just positioning himself too forward,” Stella told media including RacingNews365. 

“I haven’t seen it too much of it myself but our guys spotted it immediately, [they said] ‘I think we are in trouble’ because they checked the stopping position but there was no time to act.

“It was just a misjudgment in the position of the car. It is very difficult with this generation of cars to know where they are, because you can’t see anything.

“But ultimately, it’s a situation that cost us the second place with Lando, so important championship points.”

Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri dominated the race to take his second win of the year and close in on Norris' title lead.

While the result did not play into Norris' favour, Stella highlighted there are advantages the 25-year-old can take from the event.

“At the same time, it gave Lando some more opportunity to fight hard and fight with the racing spirit,” he said.

“It was important to do a good job with tyre degradation. 

“I think we took advantage of a good tyre allocation, because we had the two mediums, which helped Lando complete the job in overtaking Ferrari and giving him a try to pass Russell.”