Despite starting from a seemingly disadvantageous sixth position on the grid, Lando Norris put on a strong fight, eventually finishing in second place at the 2023 Brazilian Grand Prix.
The race kicked off with a stroke of luck for Lando Norris as Charles Leclerc’s hydraulic issue on the formation lap opened up a front-row spot that he astutely seized, slotting his McLaren into second place right behind pole-sitter Max Verstappen by overtaking the Astons and Hamilton on the first start before the red flag.
Norris went on to challenge Verstappen for the lead early in the race, but the reigning world champion defended his position.
Following a red flag caused by the Albon-Magnussen incident, Norris successfully fended off Lewis Hamilton and maintained his position at the restart.
However, on lap 27, Norris faced a setback during his pit stop, allowing Verstappen to extend his lead by a second or so. Despite the challenges, Norris continued to pursue Verstappen in the middle stint, initially keeping the gap at around five seconds.
Yet, as the race unfolded, the performance gap became more pronounced, and Verstappen’s strategic pit stop gave him the edge, ultimately securing his well-deserved victory.
After the race, Norris admitted that pushing Verstappen was possible, but he prioritised maximising his potential due to the threat of Alonso behind, saying: “The opportunity to race against Max was only going to be for a few laps.
“We weren’t going to find all of a sudden the pace we needed to compete against him for a whole race.
“Fernando was behind me. We know that [Aston Martin’s] race pace, especially when it’s high deg, they can have very good race pace.
“Yesterday, he didn’t have clean air, but today he was going to be in an opportunity and in a position to potentially just achieve a lot more.
“I didn’t want to compromise my own race by having one more attempt. At the same time, I was low on battery, and if you overheat the tyres too much, too early, you can pay the price quite heavily.
“I tried; it wasn’t worth a second attempt as much as I would have loved to. I think potentially could have done; it just wasn’t worth the risk and potential consequence of being in the hands of Fernando and the people behind.”
In addition, Norris shared his thoughts on the specific challenges for the MCL60 and where they were losing out during the race.
“We struggled too much in Turn 10, Turn 12, it’s where the Red Bulls are extremely competitive, and we have struggled all weekend – apart from when we were on new tyres.”
The Brit explained the moment where he did get a run on lap 8 but ultimately came up short.
“I thought if I was going to have one opportunity, it was going to be there and then. I used all my battery and DRS, and then you start catching them very quickly.
“I had a good line in Turn 1, Turn 2, but Max also had a lot of grip. If it was maybe later on in the stint, his line in Turn 1, Turn 2 would have been a lot more compromised and a bigger penalty.
“But because the tyres were so fresh and provided a lot of grip, he had a good enough exit that I then only got alongside him just before the braking zone for Turn 4. A couple more metres would have been lovely!”
