F1 News
Norris: 'The first race in many years that we’re actually racing Mercedes'
- Cameron Smith
Lando Norris has praised his team and the speed of his McLaren car after he finished in P3 and secured his third podium of the 2021 season. It's a circuit that Norris has always performed well at, he finished on the podium for the first time ever last season, and after Lewis Hamilton suffered damage, he was able to capitalise and finish on the final step of the podium.
Speaking to SkySports after the race, Norris was happy with P3, but felt he could've, and should've, finished second after a harsh time penalty for an incident with Sergio Perez. The Brit said: "Thanks to everyone, all the fans. It was a lot of fun, it was a good race, it was exciting, but I'm disappointed because we should have been second place. I thought that lap one was just racing really, he [Perez] tried to go around the outside, which is a bit stupid and he ran off the track himself, I didn't even push him. So I don't know, I'm frustrated, but I'm also happy with the P3. We had very good pace and yeah I’m happy.
"I think we had good pace, I could keep up with him [Bottas] a lot, even in the dirty air, but not enough to get into the DRS. As soon as I got close to one second I started struggling too much.
"It's nice to know that we can be there, and we can race. It’s probably the first race in many years that we’re actually racing the Mercedes and the Red Bull’s. But yeah, hopefully, we can keep it up next time."
Orange fans = McLaren fans
Max Verstappen has a sea of orange fans every time he visits the Red Bull Ring and Norris joked about his Dutch fans saying: “I can see all of these orange fans on the left now all just coming to support McLaren, so thanks to all of them” in typical Norris fashion.
He said this after being awarded ‘driver of the day’ by the fans, and he spoke on the radio immediately after crossing the line to say: “Yeah, I mean, I'm not happy, which is great really, because I am still on the podium. We had awesome pace, the team did a great job with the car, and it was a lot of fun fighting these top guys and getting stuck in, but we could’ve been P2."