Tyres overheated too much whenever I got close to Verstappen · RaceFans

Lando Norris said his attempts to challenge Max Verstappen for the lead of the Japanese Grand Prix were thwarted by his tyres overheating.

The McLaren driver pursued his rival throughout the 53-lap race at Suzuka. Norris appeared to come under threat from his team mate Oscar Piastri at times, but he said this was only when he’d deliberately dropped back from Verstappen in order for his tyres to recover.

“I don’t think I ever got less than 1.2 [seconds behind],” said Norris. “I would get closer and then drop back and closer and drop back. And every time I got close, the tyres would just get too hot and I would lose too much grip.

“Even when Oscar was behind me, it looked like he was quicker, but it was when I’m trying to drop back a little bit to cool the tyres and then attempt at catching up to Max. But it just never worked. I gave it a good try but I just didn’t have the speed today.”

Norris said he wasn’t able to stay close to Verstappen out of the low-speed acceleration zones, the hairpin and the chicane, which compromised his attempts to attack the Red Bull.

“The pace was too similar,” he told Viaplay. “We didn’t really have any advantage to Max.

“Maybe we were a bit better in sector one, in the high-speed corners, but he was much quicker in slow-speed corners. So we were struggling a lot there with the car, just not quick enough in the slow-speed.

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“It was just difficult with him in the clean air and me in the dirty air, so close, we didn’t have enough of an advantage to do anything else.

“So nothing to complain about, [just] things to work on because we were struggling a bit today with the slow speed corners. But really Max won the race yesterday in qualifying. It’s the way it is sometimes.”

Norris indicated McLaren made some concessions in its set-up for the wet conditions which were forecast for today’s race. However the showers which did hit the track passed well before the start and the track remained largely dry throughout.

“We thought there would be maybe some more rain today,” said Norris. “Maybe we were not in the optimal range yesterday for qualifying, thinking that it was going to rain a little bit today, but we did our best still, so that’s all I can ask.”