Norris caught off guard by Piastri: “I could have braked later, but…”

Once again a leadership lost

Landon Norris he failed to erase the first lap curse even at Monza. The McLaren driver emerged in first position from the Prima Variante, but was attacked on the outside by teammate Oscar Piastri at Roggia.

Norris nearly spun in what would have been a repeat of what happened in 2018 between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, but he kept control of his McLaren and was also overtaken by Leclerc in traction on his way to the first Lesmo corner. Through an undercut Norris passed Leclerc in the pitsbut then the Ferrari driver’s single stop relegated Norris to third place at the end of a race in which he had worse tyre management than Piastri. The fastest lap on the last lap, however, allowed Norris to gain eight points on Verstappen exactly as on Sunday in Zandvoort.

In the aftermath of the match, Norris essentially admitted that he was surprised by Piastri’s attack on the outside: “I could have braked much later to defend myself from Oscar, but… I don’t know – he declared to the microphones of Sky Sport – I expected to suffer with the tyres, the race went exactly as I expected. I was surprised that Ferrari did so well, but we were not able to do a stop. They had a better race car, while we were better in qualifying. Today Ferrari was better in the race, they went better than us and did a better job”.