Lando Norris showed relief to see Alexander Albon and Guanyu Zhou OK after scary accident in first corner, highlighted on-track battle with Lewis Hamilton, but regretted McLaren's choice that made him lose fifth place to Fernando Alonso
In a race marked by an incident in the first corner that knocked three cars out of the race and caused Guanyu Zhou to get stuck between the tire barrier and the wire fence, Lando Norris stayed away from the incidents to secure sixth place for McLaren in the British GP. After the race, the Briton was keen to show relief at the state of health of Alexander Albon and the Chinese driver - who were taken to the hospital and medical center, respectively - and to congratulate Carlos Sainz on his first Formula One victory.
"I want to start by saying it's good to see Alex [Albon] and Zhou get out of their cars, it's never a cool thing to see that in the race," began Norris, relieved to see his rivals escape the accident without any major problems. "I'm happy for Carlos [Sainz], it's about time he won a race. I'm very happy for him," he said.
About the race, Norris highlighted the difficulty of staying close to the cars in front, with Ferrari showing superior pace and Mercedes upping their game at Silverstone, even taking the battle to the cars in front.
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"You need to have faith in people. When they respect you and understand the size of the car, then it is always fun to battle with them," explained the Briton. "He [Sainz] is in a Ferrari that is 1s faster than me. It was nice to battle with Lewis [Hamilton] as well, but I had to let him through," he lamented.
Finally, Norris also regretted a strategic choice made by McLaren that caused him to lose a position before the end. While he was ahead of Fernando Alonso, Lando saw the Spaniard go to the pits first when the safety car came in after Esteban Ocon had abandoned his place. So when the orange team finally called out the Englishman on the next lap, the two-time world champion managed to stay ahead the moment the #4 car emerged from the pit-lane.
"We had to decide whether to use hard or soft [tires]," he claimed. "We made the wrong decision to stop on the second lap [after the safety-car came in] and allowed Alonso to get by with a free pit-stop on us. If I had stopped first, he would have stayed on track and I could have taken the advantage with a better tire," he finished.
Formula One returns next weekend for the Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring, scheduled to take place between July 8 and 10.