Lando Norris has bemoaned McLaren’s decision to stay out on track when their rivals pitted at the Canadian Grand Prix, insisting ‘we should have won the race.’

The talented young Brit, 24, finished second behind Max Verstappen in Montreal, but was leading the race on lap 25 when the first safety car came out to clear away Logan Sargeant’s.

While his rivals behind headed straight to the pits, Norris stayed out on track – and it turned out to be the wrong call, sending him tumbling back to third place two laps later.

Reflecting on the decision, Norris told reporters: ‘We should have won the race today and we didn’t. It’s frustrating, [because] we had the pace. It’s as simple as that, we didn’t do a good enough job as a team to box when we should have done and not get stuck behind the safety car.

‘This was just making a wrong call, it’s on me and it’s on the team, it’s something we’ll discuss after. We should have won today, we’re at a level now where we’re not satisfied with a second, the target is to win.’

+4

Lando Norris speaks to the media from the press conference room in Montreal, Canada

+4

Norris cut a downbeat figure and insisted his McLaren should beaten Max Verstappen to win

McLaren then again went against their rivals’ strategy later in the race, opting to stick with intermediate tyres for two laps more than Mercedes and Red Bull.

On that call, Norris was adamant they made the correct decision: ‘Staying out on the intermediates helped me, it helped. me have a chance against George, I overcut him.

‘I just didn’t do a good enough job afterwards in the dry. That was completely the right call and a good decision from us to stay out. It was the first safety car… we had enough time to box, we didn’t box. It was a mistake from us as a team.’

In the end, Verstappen tied up his third straight victory at the Canadian Grand Prix, with Mercedes’ George Russell completing the podium in third.

The upturn in form of Russell and Hamilton has been a major talking point in the paddock, but Russell insists it is no surprise to those within the team.

‘It’s no secret Red Bull have struggled these last three races,’ he began, ‘but this pace increase we’ve seen this weekend hasn’t been a surprise to us.

+4

Norris ended up behind Verstappen after McLaren opted to stay out under the safety car

+4

Verstapped tied up his third straight win in Montreal to extend his lead in the drivers’ standings

‘We’ve been seeing the numbers back at the factory.’

Elsewhere, it was a disastrous day for Ferrari, with both Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc retired from the race.

That has allowed Norris to close the gap on Leclerc in the drivers’ standings, with the McLaren man now just seven points behind heading to Barcelona.

At the top, Verstappen has extended his lead to 56 points over Leclerc.