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'My heart was racing' Norris says after leading British GP and landing first F1 podium
Lando Norris admits his “heart was racing” while leading his home race after his strong start to the British Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen suffered wheelspin from pole position and Norris took the lead from the front row, with Oscar Piastri also attacking the Red Bull for second place. Verstappen withstood that pressure and then overtook Norris on lap four, but the British driver says the spell leading the field at Silverstone was a special time.
“My heart was racing a bit more than normal, and I was watching the crowd a few times...” Norris said.
“The team have done a good job. They’ve improved the car. The last few weeks have been extremely good. I’m very happy for them. But to get the launch kind of saved me from some of the chaos behind, because you never know what can happen in Turn 3 and Turn 4.
“I managed to push on quite a bit the first few laps, which was exactly what we wanted to do. It doesn’t always go to plan. We planned for that, and got me out of trouble. Very good pace the first stint. We managed to break away from everyone quite a bit. We managed to go with Max for a little bit, just not as much as I would have loved to do.”
Going on to hold off Lewis Hamilton after a safety car period and finishing second, Norris says his first podium in his home race makes it the best result of his career to date.
“I would say the best, most exciting one. I think your first podium in Formula 1 is always pretty special. That’s one you remember forever. Maybe not when you’ve got as many as (Verstappen and Hamilton) do. For me, I’m still in that phase where every one means a lot, especially my first one here in my home grand prix.
“It’s special hearing everyone chanting, seeing all the fans, seeing all the team below the podium. It’s something like I saw back in 2007, 2008, when I first started watching Formula 1, seeing Lewis and Fernando (Alonso) here. Now it’s my turn. It’s pretty special to be here now and to be in that position, and especially on a day like today give how tricky it was at times. I’m very proud.”
Having been so comfortable for the first part of the race, Norris was given a tough task to finish ahead of Hamilton on hard tires with the Mercedes on softs, and admits he felt it made for an unnecessarily tense finish.
“We would have been in the same position (if McLaren fitted softs), so I don’t see why we wouldn’t have done it. I feel like we put ourselves under more pressure to try and get a hard tire to work with a safety car restart with 10 laps to go pretty much.
“It’s one we’ll talk about. I was telling them to think of the softs quite a bit, insinuating it as much as I could. But then they just told me you’re on the hards. So not really what I wanted, but it still worked out.”
Presented by:
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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