19/04/2021
NEWS STORY
Claiming his second F1 podium, thereby moving up to third in the standings, Lando Norris finally feels he's accomplished something.
Still disappointed at the mistake that cost him a front row start, Lando Norris started the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix behind his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, as was the case in Bahrain.
Following a poor start, which saw him lose out to Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll, the Briton made up for it at the restart following Nicholas Latifi's early crash.
By lap 9 he was running behind his McLaren teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, and feeling that he was quicker than the Australian suggested that he be allowed to pass.
Though it was a move that could have caused problems within the team, Ricciardo did indeed yield position, and once through Norris made good use of said pace.
A mistake by Perez in the moments before the Bottas/Russell clash, meant that at the restart Norris was third, and, catching a seemingly napping Charles Leclerc, was soon up to second.
With just four laps remaining, Norris was still running second to Max Verstappen, and while he had fended off numerous attacks from Lewis Hamilton, placing his car inch perfect, there was no shame for the McLaren driver when the seven-time world champion eventually made one stick.
At race end Norris was third, on both the timesheets and the world championship standings.
"I feel like I've accomplished something, you know," he said. "I feel like I gave it everything and we did the best we could, and definitely we did that today.
"I tried hang on for P2 as well in the end," he continued, "but Lewis was definitely too quick for us.
"I'm definitely a happier guy then what I was yesterday," he added, "but I think rightly so. I lost, what, four positions yesterday because of a mistake and probably made our race a lot harder today, a lot riskier as well, in the beginning with all the spray and everything.
"I think I had the right to be disappointed and frustrated, but I came in today, forgetting that, looking ahead to the new challenges, the new opportunities, and I think that showed."
Team boss, Andreas Seidl was equally happy: "Look at the two guys that have been in the end in front of us," said the German, "they are the reference in this sport together with their teams at the moment. Therefore, it is obviously very good to finish in P3."
"It's nice to be fighting these guys," added Norris, "to be there on merit, on pure pace. Hopefully we can have some more in the future.
"It was a nice little battle. It's nice to be racing unusual cars for us: a Red Bull, a Mercedes and Ferraris, things like that. It's nice to be going up against them."
At the restart, McLaren opted to put Norris on softs, and while this was to eventually leave him almost powerless against Hamilton, it was clearly beneficial in the opening laps.
"We made the decision to go on the softs and I wasn't so confident to get the tyres working as it is not an easy track to overtake on," he said, "but I think it was the right decision.
"I thought Charles was going to drive ahead of Max on the restart as he was off-track but he didn't take advantage of that. After that He had a lot of wheelspin on the restart when Max went and that is the fault of the mediums and their decision.
"We made the decision to go on the softs and we got a good launch, good restart and got ahead of him. I started saving the tyres from lap one after the restart knowing that the last couple of laps are going to be tough and they were especially with Lewis at the end.
"Lewis was a bit too quick for me," he admitted. "I held on for two or three laps but in the end I just couldn't hang on. But I'm happy than third, I'm not disappointed.
"On the whole I'm very pleased with myself, but also the team as well. I think apart from Q3 it was a pretty perfect weekend."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Imola, here.