At the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Lando Norris came tantalizingly close to surpassing Max Verstappen, with just a few tenths separating the two.
Lando Norris believes he was only “one or two more laps” from passing Max Verstappen for victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday.
Throughout most of the race at Imola, Norris held the second position. However, in the final laps, his tires wore out and his battery power decreased, causing him to lose ground. Despite this, the winner of the Miami Grand Prix managed to close the gap and finished just seven tenths behind the current World Champion as they crossed the finish line.
Lando Norris: ‘One or two more laps, I think I would have had him’
In the final section of the race, Norris managed to close the gap on the race leader despite initially trailing by over five seconds. His tires held up better than Verstappen’s, allowing him to gradually catch up.
Coupled with his McLaren appearing at least a match for the Red Bull RB20 in race trim this weekend, Norris was able to claw his way to within DRS range on the final lap of the race, but it was not enough to get close enough to launch a move for the lead of the race.
Norris experienced a moment of frustration as he exerted all his efforts in the final stretch to catch up with Verstappen, pushing his car to its limits.
He acknowledged that the reigning World Champion’s impressive initial performance might have been the determining factor of the day. Verstappen managed to establish a significant advantage on medium tires before the pit stops.
“In the aftermath of the race, Norris reluctantly admitted, ‘I hate to admit it, but if I had just managed to complete one or two more laps, I believe I could have overtaken him.'”
Unfortunately, it’s quite disappointing. I gave my all until the final lap, but Max had a slight advantage from the start and I couldn’t catch up enough.
He performed significantly better during the initial period, and it was evident that we were stronger during the subsequent period. However, the first half was challenging, while the second half was much improved. It would have been wonderful if we had a few more laps, but unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today.
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McLaren has made remarkable progress in terms of performance in the past few weeks, thanks to the successful implementation of their upgrades during the Miami Grand Prix. Norris believes that the team needs to revise their expectations for the future, although he acknowledges that his current position is still a pleasant surprise, especially considering his recent achievement of securing a podium finish in four out of the last five races.
He stated, “I believe we have reached a stage where we can confidently assert that we are now in the same league as Ferrari and Red Bull. Therefore, it is something we must adapt to and become accustomed to.”
The team is performing well. I believe we are all doing an excellent job, so everything is proceeding normally.
We’re still doing the same things, but now our goal is to secure either first or second place.
Saying that it is frustrating not to win is still surprising, but considering the improvements we made last weekend, it is what we should have begun to anticipate.
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