After “genuinely struggling” in qualifying where he took third, McLaren’s Lando Norris finished second behind teammate Oscar Piastri at the F1 Chinese GP. But near the end, he had to survive a late scare of nursing his failing brake pedal as George Russell closed in, which he called a “nightmare.”
Tough race with plenty of management
Norris began the Chinese Grand Prix with an overtake on Russell at Turn 1 and held on to it well before the pit window. The championship leader admitted nervousness when the latter jumped him during the pit stop phase, before quickly passing him again into turn 1 a couple of tours later.
Thankfully for him, his MCL39 had enough pace on its package to keep Russell at bay.
“Yeah, [I had] a few fun moments. [At] the start, I was kind of hoping for exactly that, so Turn 1 went to plan. But then George got me on the pit stops and I was a little bit nervous, but our pace was a lot better in the second stint.“
Norris was not expecting that many people would opt for a one-stop strategy since the Chinese GP is infamous for its high level of degradation.
“So, [it’s a] tough race, just with the [tyre] management, and I don’t think many people expected a one-stop today.
“So it was good. Oscar [Piastri] drove well. He was quick the whole race. I tried to get close, but in the end just couldn’t.”
There were several points where Norris managed to chip away at the gap but never got within 2s during the hard stint. Although finishing second is never what you want, he was happy to bring home a massive haul of points.
“It doesn’t matter now, really, does it? It doesn’t matter. He deserved the win and he drove very well all weekend. So I’m happy with second.
“It’s good points. It’s great points for us as a team with a 1-2. So a big thanks to everyone in papaya and yeah, just how we wanted the race to go, so very happy, yeah.“
Surviving the worst “nightmare” at the end
At the closing stages, Norris suddenly reported to his race engineer, Will Joseph that the brake pedal had gone long.
It came at the worst possible time for Norris since he lost several seconds on the final two laps as Russell was rapidly closing in. He felt relieved that he survived the “nightmare” long enough to keep his second place.
“It’s scary. It’s like my worst nightmare. You know, whenever I have a nightmare, it’s when the brakes are failing, and I was losing 2, 3, 4 seconds the last couple of laps. So I was a bit scared, but we survived and we made it to the end.
“I would have loved to have given it a little try and put Oscar under a little bit of pressure, but not today. So we’re satisfied. Great result and we’ll go again next time.“
Following the Chinese Grand Prix, Norris stayed at the top of the World Drivers’ Championship with 44 points.
