Lando Norris believes second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix was the best result McLaren could have expected.
The McLaren driver repeated his sprint race finish in the grand prix by following race winner Max Verstappen home after running behind him for the majority of the race.It was Norris’ seventh podium finish of the season and the sixth time he has taken second place in 2023. After the race, Norris described his afternoon as “very good”.
“It couldn’t have gone much better, to be honest,” He said. “Good pace, similar to yesterday, which is the main thing.
“A much better start in the beginning to get from sixth to second, which was a nice surprise. My start yesterday was not so good so I tried to work on it and it got better.”
However he admitted he didn’t get away as well at the restart when he lined up alongside Verstappen. “At the second start I was just a little bit aggressive on it,” Norris said. “I’m still happy.”
Norris now has 13 podium appearances in his career without a grand prix victory, equalling the record held by Nick Heidfeld. Despite missing out on a win once more, Norris says he feels he achieved the best result he could have hoped for.
“P2 is as good as you can get nowadays and for the time being,” he said. “But very happy for the rest of it.”
Norris challenged Verstappen for the lead soon after the restart but was rebuffed by the Red Bull. It was the closest he would come to getting ahead of Verstappen on merit during the race.
“There’s little bits where the tyres come back to you a little bit and then you can push on, but Max always seemed to have an answer to everything,” Norris explained. “Which is a shame, but fair play to him – he drove a good race.
“So tough with the wind conditions and everything, but P2 is a good result.”
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2023 Brazilian Grand Prix
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- McLaren surprised by margin over rivals at track Norris thought would be “tough”
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Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
5th November 2023, 20:35
Remember the days when car reliability issues meant that the driver in P2 often won the race?
The reliability in modern F1 is mindblowing but does mean less variety.
Dominique (@tryneplague)
5th November 2023, 21:20
Especially when you consider the huge amount of free testing time they had back then and still produced liabilities like the MP4-19.
osnola
5th November 2023, 21:20
Normally I agree, but ths race was atypical in that regard with lots reliability dnf .
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
5th November 2023, 21:53
Things you never heard Senna say.
Sign him up, Audi! Sounds like the perfect Sauber driver.
kcrossle (@kcrossle)
6th November 2023, 0:32
I come here to enjoy informed, positive comments. Wish I’d missed this one.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
6th November 2023, 0:04
@bullfrog Possibly true, but obviously different personalities.
Much of what Senna used to say – or at least some of the quotes you still see repeated – remind me of motivational speakers, or the type of thing you used to see on a poster in an office cubicle. I’m not intending to demean this as it clearly worked for him, and I am sure, many others too. But that doesn’t mean that a more pragmatic approach is necessarily defeatist, nor that Lando was not and will not give 100% to change the status quo.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
6th November 2023, 0:05
Apologies. Above was intended as a response to Bullfrog, not a standalone comment.
David (@nvherman)
6th November 2023, 8:32
@cairnsfella and indeed, whilst Senna was indeed an incredible driver, a lot of the shenanigans he got away with back in the late 80s would have seen him banned today.
Suzuka 1990 being a prime example. That was a straight revenge attack on Prost that would’ve made Dan Ticktum proud.