Lando Norris believes that McLaren’s lack of pace compared with Max Verstappen in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix “shows how quickly things can change” after the Red Bull driver’s victory.
The Briton finished runner-up on Sunday ahead of team mate and polesitter Oscar Piastri as a scintillating opening lap overtake handed Verstappen a race lead he never relinquished.Norris started fourth and was left trying to find a way ahead of P3-starter George Russell, eventually achieving the feat into the Villeneuve chicane after several attempts on the Mercedes driver in the early running.
Having cycled ahead and then back behind Piastri through a Virtual Safety Car and then late Safety Car period, Norris was able to overtake his team mate in the closing laps with the help of fresher Pirelli rubber and DRS along the main straight.
“Tough race, long race,” said Norris following proceedings in Imola. “[It] Kind of goes away from you and then it comes back, just a bit of a race of patience today, which is always hard to prepare for, but I think we did a good job with the strategy going long in the first stint.
“I think the only downside is we didn’t have the pace to the Red Bull. They were very quick, Max was very quick today, and not only did we struggle on pace but I think we also struggled with the degradation of things too.
“I think the only downside is we didn’t have the pace to the Red Bull.” Norris said
“What was our biggest strength two weekends ago turned into not being good enough this weekend, so it shows how quickly things can change. But I think we’re happy otherwise, it’s still a good team result and that’s the main thing.”
The race result was in stark contrast to the previous round in Miami, where Piastri led home a McLaren 1-2 as the papaya cars dominated proceedings.
McLaren has generally had the quickest car this season during races, taking five wins from seven Grands Prix, but reigning World Champion Verstappen has claimed three pole positions, the same as Piastri, and proven to be a thorn in the side.
His victory at Imola, which was his fourth on the bounce at the venue, means he is only nine points behind Norris in the Drivers’ Championship and 22 adrift of Piastri.
“Oscar put in a very good lap to get pole, [but] on average Max was quicker and it just turned out that this track, with the degradation of this track, therefore suited them,” said Norris.
“We had a bit more rear degradation rather than overheating and things like that, it was more just rear deg and that seems to be where the Red Bull is still very, very strong in these slow speed corners.
“We know that, we’ve said it the whole year. We aren’t getting complacent because we know how good they can be at times when things click and when they get it right, they’re ahead, and that’s the way it was today.
“We just have to keep working, nothing more to say than that. We need to keep our heads down, working on ourselves and keep doing what we’re doing.”
Source: F1 News
