Lando Norris finished the British Grand Prix in sixth place, but the British racer felt fifth was on the cards had he pitted immediately when the safety car was deployed.
Firstly, the McLaren F1 Team driver was thankful that Zhou Guanyu, Alexander Albon and George Russell all escaped injury in what was a horrible first lap crash at Silverstone, and he praised the way the cars held up under the circumstances.
However, looking back at his own race, he was running ahead of BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso for much of the afternoon, only to fall behind him when he pitted a lap after the Spaniard behind the safety car, ironically caused by the other Alpine driver, Esteban Ocon.
“Firstly, it was great to see Zhou, Alex and George get out of their cars safely today, it’s never nice to see an accident like that, so I’m glad the safety equipment did its job properly,” said Norris.
“On our side, a decent race. I felt like we deserved P5, but unfortunately we lost out at the final pit-stop under the safety car. I think we drove a good race.
“We did a lot of things very well today and we had reasonable pace in the car, it was just maybe a late call with the pit-stop and that cost us one position today. I’m not annoyed, I think we still got some good points, but it could have been one more place.”
Norris was pleased to see so many British fans in attendance across the weekend at Silverstone, many supporting him, and he was delighted to see them cheering him on after the restart as he was involved in the titanic battle for the podium places involving Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez.
“Finally, it’s been great to see the British fans this weekend, they’ve been amazing all weekend come rain or shine,” he said. “I had a really great run on the second restart and could see the fans cheering for me in the stands, which was awesome to see.
“I already can’t wait to come back next year!”
“Simply we weren’t really quick enough anyway today” – Daniel Ricciardo
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had another race to forget in the second MCL36, with a lack of grip affecting his pace before a Drag Reduction System (DRS) failure sealing his fate as he finished thirteenth.
Ricciardo was unable to find the same kind of pace that Norris was able to, and whereas the Briton was fighting with Alpine, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, Scuderia Ferrari and Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers, the Australian was languishing at the back and finished behind Williams F1 Team’s Nicholas Latifi.
“Firstly, I’m glad to hear the drivers are OK after that first lap incident,” said Ricciardo. “For our race, the car just didn’t really seem to operate at the same level of grip as the others.
“I could just feel it through the tyres as well, trying to carry speed. It was just a bit odd, so we have a bit of investigating to do. Then we had an issue with DRS which meant I couldn’t use it after lap 31 which was also a bit of a shame.
“Obviously, it’s tough to overtake with that as well – but simply we weren’t really quick enough anyway today. It was a bit of a lonely afternoon.”
Daniel Ricciardo struggled for pace during the British Grand Prix – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd