The Spanish GP Norris Should Have Won: How The VSC Stole Victory From McLaren

Formula 1 headed to Madrid for the first time since 1981 with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli claiming victory, but it should have been won by McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Feature image credit: McLaren Racing

The Spanish Grand Prix was a race of qualifying, where track position and strategy proved more important than simply overtaking, with only four overtakes reported at the re-homed Spanish event.

However, the intervention of the virtual safety car turned the race on its head, turning it from an almost-certain win for Norris into a certain win for Antonelli.

Here’s how the Virtual Safety Car stole the victory from the reigning world champion.

From Setback to Victory Contender

After missing Free Practice 2 on Friday afternoon due to gearbox issues, Norris went into Saturday’s qualifying session on the back foot.

Yet, despite limited running around the brand-new circuit and not showing signs of being a contender for pole position throughout qualifying, Norris pulled out a mega final Q3 lap to claim pole position ahead of championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 0.011 seconds and improved on his first Q3 run by over 0.7 seconds.

Kimi Antonelli extends championship lead with Spanish Grand Prix win

Race Start

While Norris started the Grand Prix on pole, McLaren was considered to have only the fourth-fastest car for race pace. However, once the five red lights went out, Norris got a decent launch off the grid and moved to the inside to cover off the charging Mercedes of Antonelli behind going into Turn 1. Despite early pressure from the championship leader, Norris maintained the race lead.

Once the race settled down, Norris started to pull away out in front, building a nice gap behind to Antonelli, proving that his pole position was not a fluke.

Where It All Went Wrong

Despite Norris surviving the lap 1 fight for position with Antonelli and showing that he indeed had the pace to keep the lead, by lap 13, his chance of victory was over.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll suffered a brake failure and went off-track down at turn 20. Stroll could not bring his car back to the pit lane and had come to a stop, eventually bringing out the VSC to clear the number 18 car from the run-off area.

This raises the question: should McLaren have pitted Norris under the initial yellow flags, knowing that the incident could further develop into a Virtual Safety Car?

By lap 14, Norris had built just over a 6-second lead, and as the VSC was called, the number 1 car was heading down the main straight to start the lap. As Norris just missed the VSC, it left him vulnerable as Antonelli and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen behind him pulled into the pits to receive a cheaper pit stop.

As lap 14 came to an end, Norris was hoping that he could also pit under VSC conditions, but right before pit entry, the VSC came to an end, and we were back to full racing speed. This prevented Norris from retaining the race lead.

Lando Norris tests McLaren hypercar ahead of WEC debut

From Bad to Worse

While this must have been frustrating for Norris, his race went from bad to worse as McLaren still chose to pit him at the end of lap 14 under green flag conditions and, as he pulled into his pit box, it was a slow stop for the McLaren driver.

Not only did he lose a chunk of time to Antonelli and Verstappen out in front due to the VSC timing, but he also dropped back behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell as a result of the slow stop, dropping him down to fifth.

Norris’ Charge Back Into Contention

Despite having bad luck, Norris did not give up. He powered his way through the pain of losing the race lead and continued to show pace. After Leclerc and Russell eventually pitted, Norris was up into the final podium place in third. And, after seeing constant fastest lap times, Norris made it up to the back of Verstappen in second, who was also gaining on Antonelli in first.

However, throughout the weekend, it was evident through the feeder series categories that overtaking was not as easy around Madring compared to other circuits. So, while it was good that Norris was back in contention for the race win, it was almost impossible for him to pull off an overtake with so few laps left.

While Norris won on race pace alone, by lap 57, it was Antonelli who took the chequered flag first, just over 4 seconds ahead of Verstappen in second and Norris, who was just 0.7 seconds behind and had to settle for third.

Ferrari unclear on Lewis Hamilton’s brake problem at Spanish Grand Prix

A Victory That Slipped Away

While Antonelli deserved credit for the victory, Norris and McLaren leave Madrid a little frustrated and wondering what could have been. Norris did everything right: from his Friday setback, to putting his McLaren on pole position, to fighting his way back into contention for the race victory after losing the lead to no fault of his own.

Norris may have crossed the line in third, but the raw pace he showed throughout the race shows that without the VSC, the outcome could have been completely different.

Madrid will be a race remembered by Norris as the one that got away, but now we shift focus and turn our eyes to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in just under 2 weeks’ time, where we go racing around the streets of Baku on Saturday, September 26th.

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Millie Clark

Millie Clark