The two McLaren drivers started with different strategies, with Lando Norris on the medium tire and Daniel Ricciardo behind him on the hard.
The Australian displayed good pace when trailing the Brit in the early part of the race, and just before Norris’ pit stop, he obeyed team orders to wait behind if he had a chance to overtake before his partner made his stop.
Ricciardo later gained position by making his pitstop with the VSC deployed, allowing him to start ahead of Norris .
In the last laps of the race, the #3 was chasing Fernando Alonso with his teammate right behind him, and they asked him if he could overtake, since he did have the pace to attack the Spaniard.
However, McLaren told the #4 to wait and, despite his obvious frustration, the Brit accepted the decision and the two McLarens crossed the finish line in eighth and ninth place respectively.
“I think it’s pretty simple,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com to explain the team’s orders.
“There was one lap just before I pitted where Daniel [Ricciardo] could have passed me and he didn’t. I think they told him to just fend off Pierre Gasly until I made the pit stop, which I did on the next lap. “.
“So there was one lap where he stayed behind me, and I guess the favor in return was that I didn’t overtake him later.”
“I could have, we were neck and neck going into Turn 1. And it was a tough decision to do it or not. My pace on the hard was a little bit stronger.”
“As we say here, I thought as a team and I stuck with it. He was lucky enough to make the pit stop with VSC, and he had the medium at the end of the race, so I thought he would have a little more pace and that he could attack Fernando [Alonso]”.
“As a team, I think we did a really good job today, we did what we wanted to do, which was to finish in the points.”
Norris also said he would talk to the team about how the race went, noting that Ricciardo hadn’t really sacrificed anything when he failed to overtake him at the start.
“Honestly, if I finish eighth or ninth today, it’s not the end of the world, it doesn’t change too much. But we always want to finish as high as possible.”
“I think just understanding the situations we were in, it was only one lap, Daniel [Ricciardo] stayed behind me until I came into the pits. And I don’t think one lap would have changed anything. I probably still would have finished behind Ferdinand”.
“So I feel like he just wanted to fight for a normal position at the end. He [Ricciardo] wasn’t there or in a different position because of what we did early in the race.
“We thought that would help me, but it didn’t. And so I think at the end of the race there was nothing to gain or lose between us.”
For his part, Ricciardo acknowledged that the team orders had worked in his favour, but insisted that Norris would not have been able to overtake Alonso .
“I think the hard tire was better,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com about his strategy. “We were quicker at the start, but there were some team orders.”
“Then at the end, Lando [Norris] was quicker on the hard ones, and again there were team orders, so it changed both ways.”
“Earlier in the race I was in the DRS zone and I picked up, I didn’t pass when I could have easily. At the end I think he was in my DRS zone and it was probably the same thing, I could have gotten ahead of him a lap or two. for the end. So I guess it was just a favor that was returned to me.”
“In any case, even if it had happened to me, I don’t think we had anything to do against Fernando. Early in the race I saw Lando coming out of Turn 16 totally glued to his gearbox and still couldn’t overtake.”
“So I don’t think it changed the team result, I think we were going to be eighth or ninth anyway,” the Australian concluded.
