Lando Norris laments ‘disappointing end’ to US GP Sprint after losing second place to Carlos Sainz
Lando Norris had a woeful race during the Sprint in Austin as he lost P2 to Carlos Sainz in the dying stages of the event.
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Lando Norris and Carols Sainz (via IMAGO)
After dominating the last race in Singapore, Lando Norris aimed to make a further dent in Max Verstappen‘s driver’s championship lead at the US GP. However, in the Sprint race, the Brit was met with disappointment as he struggled with tire wear towards the end of the race and subsequently lost P2 to Carlos Sainz.
Lando Norris started the Sprint from P4 and had a lightning getaway. This helped him get past George Russell in the initial stage and he then set his sights on snubbing the victory away from Max Verstappen. Though he was able to stay within the DRS range of the Dutchman, he quickly started facing tire wear, which made him lose proximity to the Red Bull driver. This in turn left him vulnerable to the Ferrari‘s.
Carlos Sainz was a man on a mission and gained three places from his grid spot during the Sprint. However, this unfortunately meant that the Brit conceded his runners-up spot to the Spaniard and lost a further few points to Verstappen in the standings.
It was a good race. I am pretty pleased with how things ended up. I hoped that I could hang onto second but Carlos did a good job. My front tyres were completely finished. Disappointing end but happy with the race result and a good amount of points.
Lando Norris said in a post-race interview
Despite this, Norris retained a calm demeanor after the race and displayed his improving mental strength in his fight for the driver’s title. The 24-year-old would be hoping for a better qualifying session later today and aim to cover his deficit in the Grand Prix tomorrow.
Will Lando Norris face a penalty for his incident with Charles Leclerc?
Apart from this, the McLaren driver had an iffy moment with Charles Leclerc on the last lap. The Monegasque was aiming to divebomb the Englishman into turn 15, which Norris decided to cover at the last second causing Leclerc to bail out of the move and complain over the radio.
This made the stewards interested in the late switch from the papaya car to the inside of the corner. However, a clear-cut answer to this incident might not be predictable just yet as such moments are often hard for the FIA to contend with owing to the lack of absolute arguments.
On the other hand, the 27-year-old’s lead in the driver’s standings has extended to 54 points with the Sprint win. Thus, Norris would hope for a torrid Grand Prix for Verstappen, which would help him regain some of the lost ground on the reigning world champion.
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Geetansh Pasricha
(772 Articles Published)