Lando Norris made a rare positive assessment of his own performance after winning the Dutch Formula 1 GP. The McLaren driver stated that his performance in Zandvoort deserves recognition, especially for the work done behind the wheel.
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The victory was Norris’s second consecutive win, following his triumph in Hungary, and put the Brit back in the title fight. He is still 83 points behind Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, but will have an important opportunity in the next GP, as the Italian will serve a ten-place grid penalty for a power unit component change.
In Zandvoort, Norris started from pole but had to regain the advantage over Antonelli after losing the lead on the restart, caused by Max Verstappen’s accident and consequent retirement on the first lap. The Brit highlighted the overtaking of the Mercedes driver as one of the decisive moments of the race.
“If I hadn’t passed Kimi when I did, I don’t think I would have won the race,” Norris said. The driver acknowledged that he is usually quite hard on himself, but this time he decided to value what he did on track: “I know how good a job I’m doing behind the wheel. Normally, I’m never one to talk too much about myself, I’m almost always the complete opposite, but this time, I would give myself a bit of credit because I feel like I’m doing a better job than everyone else,” he said.
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Norris also attributed part of his improvement to the work done after a below-expected performance in the Sprint race on Saturday, where he finished third behind George Russell and Charles Leclerc. According to him, there was greater dedication to his own driving, while McLaren practically did not change the car before the main GP on Sunday.
In the Brit’s assessment, Mercedes and McLaren have similar cars, although with different characteristics: “I think they have a better car in overall performance than us. We are more specific in high speed,” Norris explained, pointing out turns 7 and 8 as points where he could gain time. For him, a small mistake in the qualifying session could have completely changed the result, and consequently, the perception of McLaren’s strength.
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