Norris deems Saudi Arabian GP as 'quite a boring race' after missing out on podium

08:00, 22 Apr

Updated: 09:07, 22 Apr

byNorberto Mujica

Lando Norris, following a disappointing Saudi Arabia Grand Prix weekend in which he came in P4, claimed McLaren has no outright advantage over its competitors despite his teammate Oscar Piastri taking the third win in four race weekends.

It was a fourth out of five possible wins for McLaren this season, who saw their perfect record trumped by Max Verstappen in Japan, where both McLaren drivers' mistakes and the conditions on Sunday negated the inherent tyre management advantage of the McLaren MCL39, helping the Red Bull driver conquer his fourth success at Suzuka on the trot.

For Norris, however, the hierarchical situation in F1 is not the one the numbers suggest.

'I did everything I could'

"Clearly, that was not an easy race. We look good, we're probably the most consistent team. But we're not quicker than the rest, because of my mistakes, like yesterday. I pay the price, and I make my life very tough for myself. So I'm happy enough,” he said after the race in Jeddah to several media outlets, including GPBlog.

Norris, aided by Tsunoda's and Gasly's early DNF, finished in P4, trailing Leclerc in P3 by a second. 'Was there any more left in his McLaren?' he was asked.

“No, I was just chilling”, he said, jesting.

“No, come on, silly question. I was pushing as much as I could. I did everything. There's no degradation here. You just push flat out. In a way, it's quite a boring race because there's no deg. It's a flat-out race from lap 1 to lap 50. It makes it physically tough. No, I did everything I could. I pushed as much as I could. No big mistakes really, so I was happy.”

At the end, Norris' wanting result, and McLaren teammate Piastri's win, saw the Briton relinquish the championship lead in favour of the Australian and also allowed rival, Verstappen, to edge in closer to within two points of his current tally.