Norris: 'Clash between Verstappen and Hamilton kept me from fighting Ricciardo'

The McLaren team won this weekend with Daniel Ricciardo followed by Lando Norris on P2. A double podium finish and the first 1-2 of the season for a team. Both drivers managed to keep Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton behind them for the first half of the race.

During the Monza race, Norris was told by his team to wait and not to take on teammate Ricciardo on P1. Did the Briton think about disobeying this? "No. I got a bit closer on one lap and I just kinda… I don’t know why… I had a few flashes seeing the incident between Max and Lewis – because I saw it quite well in my mirrors, so when I thought maybe I’ll try, that was flashing up in my head and I thought naaah, maybe this isn’t the wisest decision!", Norris said during the press conference of the FIA.

The McLaren driver continued that he is happy with the result. "So, I would have loved to but, like I said, I’m just as happy in a way, like as much as I would have loved to go for the win, just finishing first and second, I’m just as happy with. The feeling I get for the win is the priority over my own feeling in a way. I’m here for many years, I hope, especially with McLaren and with the whole team, so I feel like I still have an opportunity in the future to try and go for it but in this moment and instance, I was happy just staying where I was."

Pressure from Hamilton was stressful

At the start of the race, Norris felt the full pressure of Hamilton behind him. "So, it was… just the whole race was stressful, not going to lie. There was not one moment where I thought I could relax and just chill-out a little bit. But that definitely makes it a bit more special, more worthwhile to kind of have to really work for it, and end up in this position to get past Charles as well on the restart, and so on", Norris said.