Sergio Perez, Racing Point, Yas Marina, 2019

Perez praises Norris’s driving after last-lap pass

2019 F1 season

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Sergio Perez was impressed by Lando Norris’s clean driving in their final-lap fight in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The Racing Point driver passed Norris on the final lap of the race. Perez said the move was “one of my best in my career” after taking seventh place.

“Into turn 11 he dived and I came from behind, right around the outside,” he said. “That was a pretty good move.

“Also great for him because, although he’s very young, it’s always good to race with drivers when you know it’s going to be very close. It was very aggressive, but always fair and not making stupid mistakes.”

Perez was fortunate to complete the first lap unscathed after his team mate Lance Stroll knocked Pierre Gasly into the back of his car at turn one.

“It didn’t start very well,” said Perez. “I got a big hit from Gasly into turn one. But then I managed to recover.

“I lost a position to [Kevin] Magnussen, which make me lose a lot of track time in the first part of the race. Then we managed to recover that.

“We were patient. We let the front runners pit and then we had to push to come back close to the midfield group. And we managed to do a very strong second half of the race.”

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2019 F1 season

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7 comments on “Perez praises Norris’s driving after last-lap pass”

  1. Lando is for sure the cleanest of the young drivers. Funny considering he is really aggressive in Iracing

  2. TV coverage didn’t show it but it was a great move!

    1. And for other people who hasn’t watched it yet, they show it along with Sainz pass on Hulk in their YT race highlight.

  3. His chat to Ant on Sky was really good. Totally admitted he knew exactly what he should have done, but lack the balls. But his explanation of going into the mode babysitting tyre, but then in an instant, going to full attack or defence mode is not an easy thing to do (without ruining your or someone else race). I like this lad. Him and George, but sadly, we won’t see George at his best. I just hope he doesn’t miss his window with Williams’ massive drag factor….(pun intended)

  4. Perez was able to overtake Norris because it seemed he did not defend greatly on that occasion. His onboard shows he was way too much on the left of the first corner, braking a bit too early, then left a red carpet on his right through the chicane. Perhaps sofa wisdom but it looked as if he could have prevented it eventually.

    1. Norris was coming up on a lapped Williams, and therefore didn’t have as much stable down force when defending against Perez on the last lap.

  5. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    3rd December 2019, 12:49

    It’s funny that Perez is praising another driver for letting him by for points. I’m not so sure Perez would have yielded in the same position and both cars could have been out.

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