Lando Norris, McLaren, Imola, 2022

McLaren “deserve” surprise podium after “amazing weekend” – Norris

2022 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

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Lando Norris says his McLaren team deserved their first podium finish of the season at Imola after turning around their poor start to the championship.

Norris was running fourth in the later laps of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix but picked up third after Charles Leclerc spun at the Variante Alta chicane.

After qualifying third on the grid, finishing fifth in the sprint race and then taking a podium in third during the grand prix, Norris was thrilled by his weekend.

“[It was] an amazing race, an amazing weekend to be honest,” said Norris. “To beat one Red Bull [in qualifying] and one Ferrari is much better than we were expecting, so I’m happy.

“The team deserve it from where we were in race one to now scoring a podium. They all deserve it, so top job to the team.”

McLaren had suffered a challenging start to the season, discovering a problem with their MCL36 in pre-season testing that led to the team struggling towards the back of the field during the opening race in Bahrain.

Norris had previously played down McLaren’s performance in the Australian Grand Prix, where they finished fifth and sixth. Asked where the improvement in form had come from, Norris credited the team for the turnaround in performance.

“The boring answer is just hard work,” Norris said. “A lot of time and effort everyone’s putting in back in the factory and everyone here.

“A mixture of these tricky conditions this weekend, we’ve been able to capitalise on that as well. I love these conditions, so I always do quite well – the same last year pretty much. So a mixture, just hard work and a great weekend and it all pays off.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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9 comments on “McLaren “deserve” surprise podium after “amazing weekend” – Norris”

  1. Really pleased for Lando. The podium is always more fun to watch with him on it. Solid drive, definitely lucky with Leclerc dropping back, but you gotta be best of the rest to take these opportunities.

  2. McLaren the fastest Mercedes-powered team?

    Who knew?!

  3. They sure do. Well done Lando. Keep it up!

  4. I don’t seem to be reading any comments from those that said McLaren should give up and concentrate on next year’s car after the first two races. Funny about that. Lando is just getting started.

    1. @ferrox-glideh Exactly, but you’ll hear my gloating. Even after the brake debacle I still said that car looked good.

      1. I wasn’t talking about your comment, Facetious.

    2. I don’t think I was one of those who said that, and there’s cars that seem to have very varying performances race by race, like mercedes, but mclaren’s first race weekend was really horrible!

      1. Your version of events is completely verifiable!

  5. I wouldn’t get too confident yet.

    This weekend pretty much no team was able to optimise their set up because it’s just not possible to do that in a single 60 minute practice session.

    Consequently some teams may have been better or worse than their rivals if they hit the track in relatively good shape. I don’t think any team had their best car out there for the race and it showed.

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