Norris almost crashed on his way to the start grid at Hockenheim

Lando Norris has revealed that his German Grand Prix was almost over before it started, as he was caught out by the wet conditions on his preparation laps.

The drag strip at before the final corner caused problems for a number of drivers during the race at Hockenheim, with Norris' McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz spinning out in that section of the track during the race.

Sainz managed to come away with no damage, however Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg all made contact with the wall due to the lack of grip on the drag strip.

Norris says that he tested the grip on that particular section of track prior to the race, and feared that he would end up in the barrier.

“The only thing that was stupid that led to a lot of crashes was the drag strip," Norris said.

"Luckily, I did it on my laps to the grid because we had an onboard that we had to watch, the one magic lap from Fernando when he was with Ferrari, and he goes two wheels over the curb and onto the drag strip and everything looks fine.

“So I did my lap to the grid I tried it and I genuinely thought I was going to be out of the race before I even started. I put the clutch in, full opposite lock, I’m not exaggerating.

"I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is not going to be good!’ Because the guys were waiting there to put me up on the jacks and put me in my positions, and I had the biggest fright of my life.”

Norris believes McLaren has slipped behind rivals with development

With Sainz scoring a fifth place finish and Renault failing to score points, McLaren extended its lead in fourth place in the constructors' championship, even with Toro Rosso's surprise podium.

However, Norris believes that McLaren's rivals have made some strong gains in recent races, which could make their life more difficult in races to come.

"Germany was already pretty tough, as good as it looked at times and with P5 as a result, our pace wasn’t that strong, so we’ve got a lot of work to do I think,” Norris commented. “A lot of others brought upgrades and made some decent steps ahead of us.

“It’s going to be tough, no matter what, even if we’re quick or slow, it’s still going to be tough. But at the moment we don’t look like we have as strong as a car as we’ve had in the last few races. So yeah, we’ve been trying to improve.”