There McLaren finds confirmation in the Emilia Romagna F1 GP. In fact, after the success in Miami, Lando Norris “risks” repeating himself in the season as well Imola coming close to the victory that eluded him by a few tenths.
Norris comes close to an encore
A few more laps would probably have been enough for Lando Norris. The pilot of the McLaren he also came close to winning Imola after achieving his first career success in the Miami GP. Norris in fact put Max Verstappen in serious difficulty, recovering six seconds in the final part of the race from the Dutchman. The Englishman only managed to enter the DRS area during the last lap, but he didn’t have the opportunity to attack the reigning World Champion. McLaren therefore confirms the good things shown in Miami with the new update package, positioning itself as a serious candidate to take on the role of anti-Red Bull. The biggest regret probably for the Woking team is that of not having achieved pole position in yesterday’s qualifying, where Max Verstappen, thanks to Hulkenberg’s slipstream, managed to beat Norris for nothing.
However, the Englishman already tried to make himself dangerous at the start, but Verstappen had more in the first stint on the medium tire and managed to get away. After the pit stop, however, something changed, with McLaren demonstrating better management of the Hard tire, especially in the final part of the paper where Norris recovered a good six seconds from the Dutchman. Unfortunately, however, the activation of the DRS only occurred during the last lap, where the chances of being able to attack were truly slim. In any case, the Woking Team confirmed the quality of its package for the second consecutive race, and if there had been a few more laps available Verstappen probably would not have been able to celebrate yet another victory.
Norris’s statements
At the end of the Emilia Romagna F1 GP Lando Norris expressed all his regret for not being able to achieve his second victory:
“It hurts me to say this but if I had had one or two more laps I would have taken him. It’s really a shame because I gave everything until the last lap, but I lost too much time at the start. Verstappen was stronger in the first stint, while in the second we were stronger. The first half of the race was difficult while the second went better and with a couple more laps we would have done it, but today wasn’t our day.”
The updates for McLaren have therefore worked and Norris is aware of this:
“We thought it was possible over the weekend and now we can finally say that we can fight with Ferrari and Red Bull. We are doing a great job and we must continue on this path, focusing on the same things. Now we are fighting for first and second place. It’s always a surprise to say that it’s frustrating not to win, but with the latest updates and with the two weekends we’ve had, that’s what we have to start expecting from ourselves.”
Julian D’Agata
