Lando Norris spoke about the complicated weekend that has just ended at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The British driver, after starting from the back of the field in P17, finished the race in fifth position with a stellar performance.
On the restart, he was P10. However, he had a bad launch and had to avoid a crash as he was squeezed by two cars, dropping to 14th.
“I enjoyed the whole thing apart from my restart. I probably had to avoid a very big crash. People coming across, not probably realising that people can be three abreast. So I avoided 2 extremely big crashes which would have been very nasty. A bit more self awareness of some drivers would be great.
However, Norris provided a racing masterclass from there on in. He overtook Bottas, the Alpines, Hülkenberg, Albon, Piastri (team orders), Ricciardo and Russell to finish a stunning P5.
He was also left surprised at having better race pace than everyone bar Verstappen and Hamilton in that long final stint.
“The pace was amazing from already lap 1. There was a lot of management involved — already when I came over the line for the first time I got told to cool the engine. So maybe we weren’t perfectly set up for these things.
“I couldn’t maybe push as mush as I wanted to at times. But in the times I could, which is a lot of the second stint, the pace was excellent.
“To go from 14th to 5th, to have better pace then almost everyone bar Hamilton and Max was very encouraging for us. It’s as perfect of a day as I could probably ask for.”
The disappointment of qualifying and getting knocked out in Q1 still clearly irked him somewhat after the race, even if he admitted that he dealt with the blow better than he did in Qatar, stating he can never be happy after what happened on Saturday and letting McLaren’s employees down.
“I know people complain at why I’m so disappointed at times and that’s because of days like today. Of course I’m gonna be disappointed. There’s times to finish on the podium, get another trophy and score more points. Why would I ever be happy about a day like this?
“I moved on very quickly. I moved on better than I did in Qatar — and we put a lot on focus on today. I think that was evident and I think it paid off.
“I’m never gonna be happy after a day like yesterday, right? Because I know what we’re capable of doing. When you have a day like today then you think of the what could have beens — and there is too many what could have beens at the minute.
“Again a similar thing but that was for higher positions — twice. It’ll be the same for anyone. If anyone was in my position… maybe some people are a bit better than others.
“You’re never gonna be happy when you’ve messed up, when you’ve let the team down and there’s 700 or 800 people relying on me to do a good job. So when you don’t, how can I put a smile on my face?
“I dealt with it a lot better then I did the last time. Mainly because it wasn’t for a pole or for a win. But at the same time, I moved on and got my head down onto today and it all paid off. I am happy with that.”
Photo Credit: McLaren Racing
The strategy for Norris was to start on soft tyres, trying to gain positions as quickly as possible and get into clear air with an early stop. A strategy approved by the Brit himself.
“It just helped me a bit in the start, off the line and things like that. It’s always tough in turn 1. It can go your way, it cannot go your way. I think we playd everything smart. I think we played it well.
“Maybe the safety car and a couple of things weren’t perfectly timed for us, the VSC and so forth. But, otherwise I think everything pretty much went our way and we maximised today.”
Norris has been quite vocal on the radio this year in regards to team orders at times, but he was happy to try and pass the Australian yesterday. In the end, Piastri was asked to move over after picking up damage in his battle with Tsunoda.
“I didn’t ask to go past or anything. I was happy to race against him. But I think it was clear just from pace and points that I eventually went on to get that it was the correct thing to do from a team perspective. Thanks to Oscar.”
Norris overtook 13 cars during his two charges through the field in the race. But he saved his best for the last two as he beautifully passed former teammate Daniel Ricciardo and good mate George Russell to grab a very unlikely P5.
“I know Daniel, he’s not going to want to give it up easily at all, right?Two tough ones (Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell), but enjoyable, all the racing after the restart was fair, tough and hard. And that’s when it’s good fun.”
