Lando Norris was delighted after successful the thrilling wet-dry-wet Australian Grand Prix, notably as McLaren had “acquired it mistaken so much final 12 months” in related circumstances.
The British driver was referencing his possibilities to win each in Canada and at Silverstone in 2024, the place McLaren made errors on pitstop timings and tyre selections, however averted related errors as Norris turned pole place into the Melbourne win because the 2025 season commenced.
Norris completed forward of Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen, having soaked up stress from the world champion early on after which his team-mate Oscar Piastri by way of the center part of the race, earlier than the second McLaren spun down the order when the rain returned within the closing phases.
“We acquired it mistaken so much final 12 months, so I suppose we discovered from our errors,” Norris mentioned after climbing from his MCL39 following his fifth F1 profession victory. “We misplaced out on Silverstone and Canada by way of a race like this. So, we have simply discovered from our errors, I feel.
“It is nonetheless solely round considered one of 24, however coping with the stress, coping with Max, coping with Oscar behind me, I used to be pushing the entire manner by way of. I might calm down inside, however I wasn’t enjoyable from how a lot I used to be pushing.
Lando Norris, McLaren
Picture by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Pictures
“A tricky one, so to not make overly too many errors, to not have a mistake that value me something, I suppose I might take slightly little bit of credit score for that.
“A tricky difficult race, however I imply for McLaren, I want to provide a giant thanks as a result of they’ve given me an incredible automotive. So, I’ve to begin with them.”
Norris needed to survive three security automotive restarts – with the final coming simply six excursions from the flag and as Verstappen bore down exhausting with recent tyres late on, after the 2 late security automotive intervals closed the sector again up.
A mistake from Norris going too deep at Flip 6 acquired the Purple Bull driver into DRS risk for the ultimate three laps, however though he got here shut the world champion by no means made a transfer to attempt to take the lead.
“Simply drive, I suppose,” Norris replied when requested how he had handled Verstappen’s late stress.
“I imply, Max was fast. I knew I had, like, good tempo, however I made one mistake in Flip 6 and he acquired throughout the DRS – and the DRS round right here might be like a second or one thing.
“So, that allowed him to maintain staying inside that second and have a few like little seems to be.
“And I needed to examine my mirror a number of extra instances than what I might have appreciated, however I stayed calm and I saved it collectively and I listened to Will [Joseph, Norris’s engineer who had warned him not to overdrive on the final lap], in order that’s a very powerful factor.”
On this article
Alex Kalinauckas
Components 1
Lando Norris
McLaren
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