Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri reflect on a tough Imola race, where Red Bull’s pace and early errors defined McLaren’s final result.
Norris secured a fourth consecutive podium finish at Imola, following similar results in 2021, 2022, and 2024. However, the McLaren F1 driver is still yet to win the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, having once again been beaten by Max Verstappen.
He might have had a chance to challenge the Dutchman, but Oscar Piastri was ahead in the final stint despite worn tyres. After several laps of battling without team orders, the Briton moved up to second, but Verstappen was already out of reach.
On the cool-down lap after the finish, Norris refused to criticise the lack of instructions and acknowledged Red Bull’s dominance: “We didn’t have the pace to win today.”
He reiterated this after the race, convinced nothing could have stopped Verstappen from winning: “It was a long race, not easy to overtake, and we did everything we could. Max was quick today, he had a good race, they were just a bit faster.”
“We couldn’t keep up, there was a good fight between Oscar and me at the end, it’s always tense but fun. It was a good race for the team—second and third is a solid result. We would have liked to fight Max, but they were too strong at the front.”
The Briton was pleased to have reclaimed second place: “I could see he was struggling with tyres. That’s a situation you have to make the most of, but it’s always risky. Still, there were good battles and some nice moves today.”
Piastri rues start error as McLaren settle for podium
Oscar Piastri, meanwhile, didn’t capitalise on pole position and was overtaken at the start by Verstappen. He admitted his move into Turn 1 wasn’t ideal, as he was mainly watching George Russell behind.
“I braked too early, it was a good move by Max. It’s disappointing—we also made poor decisions after that, not our best Sunday, and we’ll have to review it. But credit to Max and Red Bull, he made a great pass and they had very strong pace. We’ll look into what we could have done better,” Piastri said.
He then pitted early in an attempt to undercut, but was compromised by race circumstances: “It was tough. The VSC came at the perfect moment for Max and Lando, and I already had worn hard tyres, which made the restart tricky, but that’s how it goes.”
On worn tyres, he knew he couldn’t hold off Norris: “It was tough, I did my best to defend, I really gave it everything—I wasn’t going to let it go without a fight.”
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