Lando Norris believes he got unlucky in the Brazilian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen came through to win from his 17th-place grid slot.

The championship rivals had very different fortunes on Sunday at Interlagos, as a poor qualifying turned into joy for Max Verstappen while Lando Norris could only salvage sixth place from his pole position.

Lando Norris points out Red Bull’s red flag gamble

Norris, starting from pole position, lost out to Mercedes’ George Russell off the line, and spent most of the first half of the race sitting behind his compatriot as the weather conditions remained treacherous.

Verstappen, having started from 17th due to an unfortunately timed flying lap in Q2 that knocked him out even before his five-place grid penalty for an engine change was applied, quickly carved his way through the pack and latched onto the back of Charles Leclerc in sixth as the race-changing events began.

Leclerc pitted for fresh tyres as the rain intensified, while the Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Nico Hulkenberg getting beached in the escape area at Turn 1. Attempting to capitalise, Russell and Norris both pitted – just as the VSC ended.

This promoted Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen into first and second as the duo took the gamble of staying on their intermediates, waiting for either a red flag or for conditions to improve.

The red flag did come moments later as Franco Colapinto crashed, meaning the race stopped and allowed everyone to change tyres for the restart – meaning it was Ocon and Verstappen leading the way having been able to change tyres for free, with Norris in fourth for the restart.

But errors would follow from Norris, as he went off at Turn 4 before a more catastrophic mistake at Turn 1 on a later Safety Car restart sent him back down to seventh. McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri moved aside to let him take sixth.

With Verstappen winning by almost 20 seconds after slicing his way past Ocon and setting multiple fastest laps, the result all but ended Norris’ hopes of a maiden championship win – and the British driver wasn’t in top form as he spoke to media after the chequered flag.

“Yeah, you can change your tyres under the red flag. That’s what the others did. So just unlucky, unfortunate,” he said.

“Sometimes it just goes your way, you know. So nothing we did wrong. I don’t get what people say – staying out was not the right thing to do. It shouldn’t have been red-flagged, but obviously, there was the crash, in the end, which caused the red so just… that’s life sometimes.

“You take a gamble, it’s paid off for them. It’s not talent or, you know, it’s just luck. So, just a bit unlucky.”

Lando Norris: Fourth was the best I could do

Having embarked on the second half of the race in fourth place, with everyone back on a level playing field, the McLaren man said he felt this position was the maximum possible for him had he not made the mistakes he went on to do.

“I mean, I still made a couple of mistakes in the end. I had cars on my left, on my right, I locked the rears, and I went off,” he said of his Safety Car restart.

“I lost two positions. So a little bit unfortunate, my own fault.

“So not a perfect race for me, but I think no matter what fourth was the best anyone could do today of the people who boxed and didn’t get lucky, but otherwise, we’ll just keep our heads down.”

Having pitted under the VSC in an attempt to reduce the time lost in the pits, Norris had been heard requesting to pit even earlier, and he defended McLaren’s decision to come in when he did.

“It was the right time to box. Yeah, it was, was the right thing,” he said.

“So no regrets, just unlucky. It’s a silly rule that no one agrees with [red flags], but you’ll always agree with it when it benefits you, you know.

“So, yeah, every driver said that they don’t agree with it, and they wanted it changed.

“So it’s just unfortunate, but it’s the rule – you win some, you lose some. It benefits them today.”

Having had the world at his feet after qualifying as he snatched pole position to capitalise on Verstappen’s misfortunes, the British driver said he felt he’d been unlucky and there wasn’t much more on the cards for him.

“Quite easy. I did all I could today. That’s all,” he said, when asked how easy it would be for him to digest the result.

“Max won the race. Good on him, well done, it doesn’t change anything for me.

“It’s been an up-and-down weekend, for sure. Not a lot more I could do.

“I’m sure George probably feels like he [could have] won the race today, he deserved it more than anyone else and I probably would have finished third realistically. So it’s tough.

“Max probably would have come through anyway and probably beaten us, but, yeah, just unlucky for us.

“Nothing more than that, I made a couple of mistakes, which cost me a couple of positions in the end.”