Lando Norris secured an unexpected second at Imola, though a lack of team orders may have cost him a shot at victory.
Starting 4th on the grid, Lando Norris can be satisfied with having climbed to 2nd place in Sunday’s Grand Prix at Imola.
The Briton also has some reasons to feel slightly disappointed. He didn’t have the pace to match Max Verstappen’s Red Bull; and the Virtual Safety Car came at the worst possible time for him.
But after taking what he called a “slap” in qualifying, Lando Norris regained confidence on the Italian track yesterday.
“It’s probably the best result I thought we could realistically get. I probably just didn’t expect the Red Bull to be as fast as it was,” Norris confirmed after the race.
“I’m happy with second place. But yeah, Max was too quick. It was fun.”
Lando Norris pulled off some fine overtakes, on George Russell and Oscar Piastri, but says he didn’t particularly enjoy driving the orange car. It still seems to be giving him a hard time behind the wheel…
“It didn’t feel really excellent anywhere, to be honest. It wasn’t wonderful to drive.”
“But sometimes that’s just how it is, and you’re still quick. So it’s a bit hard to say. It’s just a very bumpy track.”
“A lot of those high-speed corners, where we maybe seem to struggle a bit compared to the Red Bulls. That’s where we’ve suffered all season so far, the high-speed corners.”
“So we need to work in that area, and maybe that hurt us a bit more this weekend. But we’ve said it from the start, we need to keep working hard.”
“Max beat us in qualifying a few times, and their pace just came through in the race. Sometimes they’ve been ahead, but their Sunday pace hasn’t been that strong. Maybe they worked on a few things, and their race pace was better here in Imola.”
“That’s the price we pay for not being quick enough.”
Max Verstappen confirmed it: the Red Bull thrives in high-speed corners. Not so much in slow ones. On paper, then, Lando Norris and McLaren F1 could be looking strong for the next Grand Prix in Monaco.
“I haven’t even thought about it yet, to be honest. So yeah, I’m expecting a normal level. Whatever that may be.”
Another internal battle mishandled at McLaren F1?
After the Safety Car, Lando Norris was 3rd on fresh tyres, while Piastri, on worn tyres, was in 2nd.
Had McLaren F1 immediately ordered Oscar Piastri to let Lando Norris through, perhaps the Briton could have gone on to fight Max Verstappen for the lead.
But that didn’t happen: Lando Norris confirmed that no team orders were issued to either driver before the race resumed. Giving Max Verstappen time to escape…
“No. There was nothing,” Lando Norris confirmed when asked about team orders.
The Briton therefore had to overtake Oscar Piastri on track. A move that may have helped rebuild his confidence.
“It was a good battle between us. I was just on the fresher tyres, so I was always going to have that slight edge on him.”
“And yeah, just with the DRS, I managed to get a good final few corners. I knew it was probably my—not my only chance—but you saw once I got past him how easy it was to pull away.”
“It was clear he was just struggling with the tyres, which I think everyone did quite a bit during the race. It was tight.”
“I don’t know how close we got into Turn 1, but we’re both racing, we both want to beat each other, and it was good that we could race so closely like that yesterday.”
Did the two drivers touch?
“I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t know how close we were to contact.”
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