He was already behind them. He went to pits and got a small tire advantage on a super durable tire on a track that is hard to overtake on.Ben1980 wrote: ↑30 Nov 2025, 19:34Norris waa losing time to Sainz and Antonelli. Keeping him up longer only guaranteed 5th. He should have stopped earlier.FittingMechanics wrote: ↑30 Nov 2025, 19:32Incredibly stupid strategy calls, on two occasions.
First not pitting on lap 7 which was a slam dunk obvious pit decision. Maybe just maybe Norris has to hold but so what, maybe let him into traffic and take the penalty.
Second super stupid decision was pitting Norris onto hards at the end. He was holding up Max, hurting Max's tires and hoping for a potential red flag. Going until the 25 laps of the tire would put Norris on his half used softs for last 7 laps, again hoping for a SC and by holding Max he would have helped Oscar and himself. At least make Verstappen have to overtake Norris, once he overtakes you can either go to hards or softs, depending on when it happens.
But no, we get Norris to pit and come out 2 seconds behind Antonelli.
At least Antonelli made a mistake and Norris is 12 points ahead.
I bet that going on softs would have worked out better. Not to mention that you could luck into position due to a SC or a red. What they did was the worst decision.
