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Norris had 'fun' battling Hamilton on opening lap

Published on 02 Jul 2019 09:15
3
By: Coilin Higgins

McLaren's Lando Norris says he found it fun to be able to pressure Lewis Hamilton for third position on the opening lap of Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris made a strong start from fifth to come wheel to wheel with the five-time champion twice on the opening lap on the way to finish sixth in the race.

"I battled him for two straights, but yeah it was quite fun to be honest," Lando said after the race. "It was nice to be able to battle the faster guys. Obviously, I didn't have the pace for the fast cars but I did what I could. I was into third at one point which was nice."

Norris was happy that he took the risk in racing Hamilton on the opening lap despite not having the pace to keep up with Mercedes driver, and insisted that Hamilton did not go easy on him.

"He was squeezing me and it was tough and he didn't make my life easy that's for sure," Norris commented. "We were side by side down the whole straight to turn three and down the whole straight to turn four.

"It would have been risky to stay on the outside of turn four but I did all I could. It was nice for once to have a good start and a good opening corner, and having the battles was good fun."

Norris pleased with Spielberg performance

Apart from his early battles, Norris was happy with his overall performance and pace of the car throughout the race.

"It was nice to score points after the last two races after none in Canada and Paul Ricard. It wasn't easy, obviously I had a good start but I still dropped behind the Alfa, but I managed to get past him.

"They put me on softs in the middle of the race after the pit stops, which was obviously the riskier tyre in terms of making it to the end. I had to manage the tyres quite a bit. I had the pace in the car to push if I had to but I'm happy with what I did and got some good points for the team"

JuJuHound

Posts: 352

McLaren guys drove fantastic race.
If you thought Austria was great race, just see what have you lost since it wasn't shown during broadcasting
https://streamable.com/7nt54
Vamos !

1
Jul 2 2019 - 10:30

F1 News Lewis Hamilton Lando Norris Mercedes McLaren

Replies (3)

JuJuHound

Posts: 352
McLaren guys drove fantastic race.
If you thought Austria was great race, just see what have you lost since it wasn't shown during broadcasting
streamable.com/7nt54
Vamos !
- + 1
- Jul 2 2019 - 10:30
denis1304

Posts: 284
They need to lose -0,5 second in qualifying trim, to start to mess thing for top 3 teams ... hope they do it ASAP
- + 0
- Jul 2 2019 - 12:57
ajpennypacker

Posts: 2,475
What a difference a year makes. McLaren is by far the most improved team. They're also the best of the rest. They haven't always had the best car, but they haven't really botched strategies horribly, messed put stops, or done anything egregious. Compare them to Haas. Who had the fastest car at the beginning of the year, and in typical fashion managed to squander most opportunities for big points.

Driver's-wise, Sainz is a proven talent. I still think he has super star potential, but that year with Renault made him look weak. He's doing great this year. Lando is definitely a rising star. He's conservative approach to the first few races is paying off. He's accumulated a bunch of points. Has done anything silly. Now, he seems to slowly bee increasing the level of aggression. He clearly has decent racecraft, maybe even great. But we're barely starting to see it in F1
- + 1
- Jul 2 2019 - 20:42