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Lando Norris has admitted he was surprised by Oscar Piastri’s overtake on lap one of Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
The British driver claimed pole position for the fourth time this season in Saturday’s qualifying session. However, his lap one woes when leading from the front continued on race day as he was overtaken by both Piastri and Charles Leclerc.
Lando’s woes continue
Going into Sunday’s race, Norris was looking to overturn his regrettable record when starting from pole position. The 24-year-old had started from the front of the grid on three previous occasions in 2024, however had lost the race lead into the first corner in each of those grand prix. Unlike those instances though, the McLaren driver led the pack coming out of the first chicane in Monza and rounded the Curva Grande towards turn three.
However, as he approached the second chicane, Norris braked cautiously, opening the door for Piastri. After spotting the gap, the Australian driver went late on the brakes, tiptoeing around the outside of his teammate and into the lead. As well as losing the place, Norris also failed to manufacture a sufficient exit from the following corner. As a result, an opportunity arose for Leclerc who sailed past the British driver, demoting him to third place. Whilst the sequence did not necessarily ruin Norris’s race, it could be argued that it surrendered the power that McLaren had over the rest of the field at that point in time.
What an absolutely beautiful move from Piastri to take Norris for the lead!!!!
But do McLaren want to win the drivers championship?????
— Matt Gallagher (@MattP1Gallagher) September 1, 2024
Cutting it fine
When speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, Norris made his feelings clear about Piastri’s move:
“I feel like he got way too close for comfort – we both easily could have been out in that corner if I braked one metre later.
Obviously if I could rewind I would do stuff slightly differently, but it is what it is. Oscar drove a good race and so did Charles.”
The British driver was then asked whether there was a possibility that the team could have achieved maximum points if the incident had not happened, which he was unsure about:
“No, because… I mean, maybe.
“Charles won by two seconds in the end – the fact he got ahead probably gained him two seconds over the course of the race, so… Maybe, I don’t know.”
Although he was left to rue what could have been for McLaren, Norris also took the time to appreciate the good work of Leclerc and Ferrari:
“Charles just drove a good race, they did something with strategy that we would not be able to achieve today.
“We thought of the one-stop, we were ready to try and do a one-stop, we just couldn’t achieve it. Our degradation was too high on the front tyres, and that’s probably a bit of a weakness from us at the minute is front tyre degradation.
“From rear, we’re very strong – I think that’s why we’ve been so good at other races. But today was not a question of rear deg, it was front deg, and we struggled just too much and clearly Charles and Ferrari were better than us today from that perspective, and that won them the race.
“But we were ready for that, I think we kind of expected someone else to be very good on tyres, and it turned out to be the Ferraris. So yeah, if there’s anyone I’d rather win, it’s the Ferrari around Monza, so good job to them.”
Heating up at the top
Whilst he will feel like he was capable of much more at the Italian Grand Prix, Norris‘ 16 point haul helped the team edge ever closer to Red Bull in the World Constructors’ Championship Standings. After eight rounds, McLaren trailed the Austrian team by 92 points, however an impressive turnaround in the following eight races has hugely reduced that deficit. Following Sunday’s race, the Woking-based outfit now sit only eight points behind Red Bull with Ferrari a not so distant third.
McLaren continue to close the gap to Red Bull ?#F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/hy9tDp9dDk
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 1, 2024
As well as aiding the team, the British driver also helped his own cause in regards to challenging Max Verstappen for the Drivers’ Championship. The Dutchman’s lead was reduced by a further eight points in Italy, bringing the gap to Norris down to 62 with only eight race weekends remaining.
Feature Image Credit: (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)