First victory and virtual vice-champion
This season’s Miami Grand Prix ended with the first Formula 1 victory for Landon Norrisprotagonist of a growth in competitiveness made possible also thanks to the great progress of McLaren. The proof of this notable leap in quality is in the second position that the British driver currently occupies in the Drivers’ standings (as does the Woking team in the Constructors’ standings) while waiting for the resumption of hostilities on the track, with a gap of 78 points to make up on Max Verstappen.
The three regrets
A victory in the USA that adds to seven other podiums in the first 14 GPs of the world championship, in a first part of the championship in which there were also some errors committed by the Briton, to which he reacted with much self-criticism. If it weren’t for some of them, Norris might perhaps be closer in the standings to the Dutchman from Red Bull at the moment, but in an interview with racingnews365.comthe #4 regrets the result of three races in particular:
“From a competitive point of view, there have certainly been moments in which I wish I could have done better and that I would like to rewind – he explained – not as many as you might think, but certainly some. Probably Hungary, Canada and Silverstone. In Canada I had a chance to win, but people don’t understand how fast Mercedes was that weekend. They could have achieved the easiest one-two of the year, but they didn’t. We missed the chance to fight for the win, instead of saying we lost. Also in Silverstone I missed the chance to fight for the win because I was much slower than Lewis Hamilton. As I said then, even if I had come on after the last pit stops ahead of Lewis, I still wouldn’t have won the race. This is an important point that not many people know: he was much faster and the tyre wear was much better than ours with the soft tyre.”
Departures to forget
Norris, who also admitted his poor starts in Spain and Hungary, where he lost the lead to his teammate, to whom he then ceded the victory: “With my departures to Barcelona and Hungary I potentially lost two victories – he concluded – a bigger defeat than the one I suffered in Canada or Silverstone. I was fast enough to win there. We were faster than Max in the race and I lost the position because of myself. There were some cases, but less than you might think from the outside. Overall, I feel like I’m a better rider this year than last year. This is the most important thing for me.”
#Norris #moments #rewind
