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Norris overcomes setback: It's not as bad as it was

Norris overcomes setback: "It's not as bad as it was"

01-10-2021 16:20 Last update: 18:44

GPblog.com

Lando Norris drove a very strong race at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, but was let off the hook when he decided to change to rain tyres too late after the skies broke in Russia. Up until that point, the young Briton had caused a stir, holding off his compatriot in a faster car, Lewis Hamilton. However, it all ended in tears for Norris, who failed to even make the podium.

Norris gets over it

After the race, the normally smiling Norris struggled to hold back tears in front of the cameras. How is he doing in the meantime? "It's become less of a problem. I had Monday off to get over it myself and then I was at McLaren on Tuesday and spent a lot of time with my engineers, our whole group, going through everything with some clarity about the decisions we made. I'm better now and ready for the next challenge."

Meanwhile, the McLaren driver, therefore, sees the events in Russia primarily as a learning process: "It's not just something people say, it's definitely true [that difficult experiences make you stronger]," Norris said at F1.com."You probably learn more from the difficult moments. You're always learning things. Even if you win a race, you can learn things. When you have to make a split-second decision, when it's not an easy decision and so many different factors come into play, you can learn a lot from that."

Better now than later

Norris at least felt supported by the many positive messages he received after the race: "I got a lot of messages from a lot of people that help in some ways. There were a lot who said, 'Your time will come!' But either way, they definitely helped. I feel like I have a long career in F1, it's nice in a way to get it out early so that when these things happen in the future, or in my future years in F1, I'll be able to react better."