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Norris assesses chances against Verstappen and Red Bull at Monza

Norris rates chances against Verstappen and Red Bull at blisteringly fast Monza

27 August at 10:00
  • Nicole Mulder

Whereas Lando Norris finished miles behind race winner Max Verstappen in last year's Dutch Grand Prix, this time it was the McLaren driver who left his rival far behind. Can he repeat the same trick on Monza's blisteringly fast Formula 1 circuit? Norris replies.

Norris assesses chances against Verstappen and Red Bull at Monza

McLaren had a killer pace at Circuit Zandvoort. Norris created a gap of 20 seconds between himself and home favourite Verstappen at the end of the race, a scenario that was common in reverse a year ago. The Woking-based team's F1 car currently seems fast on all circuits. Only during the Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps was Norris' pace particularly disappointing. Team-mate Oscar Piastri still managed to finish second there after George Russell's disqualification.

Norris therefore dared not make any concrete predictions for the Italian GP. "I have no idea," he states when asked. "You ask us questions as if we know everything, but I have no idea. Anyone can be on top. Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull or us. Ferrari was pretty fast on Sunday, we probably didn't expect them to be that good."

"Maybe Red Bull struggled a bit more," continued the 24-year-old Briton. "I think that was probably more of a factor, that the Red Bulls struggled a bit more on Sunday than we expected. So we'll just keep the focus on ourselves. There's no point thinking about how we're going to do next weekend, we'll just go out there, work hard and wait and see. There's no point in thinking ahead."

This article has been written in collaboration with Ben Stevens. 

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