McLaren breaks down Lando Norris’s failed plan to overtake Max Verstappen at Sao Paulo
McLaren team boss revealed the issues that the Briton Lando Norris faced in challenging Max Verstappen for the entire race.
Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastry and Lando Norris (Via IMAGO)
The McLaren driver, Lando Norris, finished an impressive P2 at the chaotic Brazilian GP. After the race restarted, Norris threw everything at Max Verstappen to potentially overtake him. But as evident from the results, the Briton failed in doing so.
Lando Norris put on an impressive show in the entire weekend of the Brazilian GP. The 23-year-old was the pole-sitter for the sprint session and subsequently finished P2 in the sprint race. The Briton desperately needed the victory, as displayed by racing around the circuit.
The team boss, Andrea Stella, talked about the need for victory for the team. Especially after the red flag restart, the team had one more shot at securing the potential victory in the race. Stella claimed that the team tried their best to display an impressive start.
I think certainly in terms of our approach, especially after the red flag, we wanted to win it. So we put, at the start, our best set of Softs on, we decided to start on a new set so that we could try and take the lead.
Stella said, as reported by racingnews365.com.
The boss discussed putting Verstappen in an unusual position for Norris to gain an advantage. He also talked about gaining time when the race leader would pit but failed in doing so.
From there, [we hoped to maybe] put Verstappen in an unusual position and see what we could do, maybe we can just cover any time he pits, and so on. We couldn't take the lead at the start, we went very close to doing that on track [but could not].
Andrea Stella revealed the problems Lando Norris faced
After the race, the Italian boss revealed the issues the Briton faced in his challenge of overtaking the race leaders. Stella claimed Norris’ tires started heating as he pushed too hard in the first stint. The boss also talked about the constant threat from Fernando Alonso.
The 52-year-old principal insisted that the lead Verstappen gained in the initial few laps was enough for him to cling onto the first spot. After the first tire stint with softs, there wasn’t much that the young man Norris could have done to overtake Verstappen. Stella also appreciated the mega laps the Dutchman put together in the Brazilian GP.
The McLaren racing team has achieved some amazing results after the mid-season break. The team had effortlessly overtaken Aston Martin after the break, and the British-based team is now at a comfortable fourth spot in the constructors championship.
In case you missed it:
- Red Bull calls Max Verstappen’s battle with Lando Norris at Brazil a ‘cat and mouse game’
- Carlos Sainz blames the gearbox issue for a disappointing Brazilian GP result
Justin P Joy
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