Lando Norris may have reason to be self-critical in the wake of the thrilling Spanish Grand Prix, where he felt he let Max Verstappen go. Today we will discuss about Spanish Grand Prix qualifying 2024: Lando Norris to win Spanish GP.
Spanish Grand Prix qualifying 2024: Lando Norris to win Spanish GP
Lando Norris may have reason to be self-critical in the wake of a thrilling Spanish Grand Prix, where he felt he had knocked Max Verstappen out the door for victory.
Yet the British driver tried his level best to rectify this and raced strongly to see the Dutchman through to the flag and, although it will be cold comfort, his form and that of his McLaren team are such that Verstappen knows he now has There is one nearby, fight at his hands.
Verstappen took the flag in Barcelona by just 2.2 seconds from Norris as the 24-year-old tried to make up for the loss to his Red Bull rival twice in the 66-lap race.
It was a brilliant display of speed and passing that saved what would otherwise probably have been a pedestrian affair, with Verstappen once again in the lead for the vast majority of the race.
Norris talks openly about how critical he is of himself, that he has a glass-half-empty attitude, and one can only imagine the furious scolding he gave himself from inside the helmet because His advantage from pole position was lost in the early seconds.
He didn’t have the best start and through Turn One he was overtaken by Verstappen as George Russell passed them both to take the lead. As Norris admitted, this was the defining moment.
“I should have won, but I messed up at the start,” he said, perhaps a well-intentioned and polite version of the assessment he could later subject himself to. However, he was right, and a measure of the race was the reaction to how it then proceeded.
There was a clear sense of relief on the part of Red Bull and Verstappen that this was what they had to fight for and Verstappen, who had taken the lead from Russell on lap two, even admitted that he did not have the fastest car that day.
There was frustration at McLaren which was dissipated. They are expecting more now, to have a team ready that has the tools to do the job, a big change for them in two short years.
Team principal Andrea Stella admitted that it was the small talk between This will be of greatest importance from a long-term perspective that will ultimately excite the team and Norris.
Verstappen has stated that he believes the team’s early season dominance is over and noting that Barcelona is considered a fundamental and demonstrative test of how well a car’s aerodynamics are working, If Red Bull still has the lead it is much less clear when the season opens.
The details were really important, but everything followed from that start, after which Norris lost time to Russell on the first stage before the early stops of the two-stopper race. Verstappen tried to take the lead during that period, yet it brought the race alive.
Norris had a job to do and he set about completing it without any determination. After a long stop to set the tire offset, he had to make a pass to come back and so they fell, as if he had a point to prove.
Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton and then Russell were all passed within eight laps. Norris competed with Russell in some spectacular wheel-to-wheel racing, changing positions three times on the lap before the McLaren driver came out on top in sixth place.
Norris, who scored his first win in Miami this season, is in no mood to be satisfied with the podium and stressed the need for the team to formulate its strategy for victory.
They duly sent him to the pits and, with those little details at play again, he lost by less than a second in the slow stop. Norris had to do it all again, hunting down Verstappen, who had a nine-second lead with 19 laps remaining.
An all-out attack began for the finish, with Norris moving forward in quick succession, closing the gap to five seconds when Verstappen was in a precarious position given the haste made by his team.
He responded and had enough to keep the flag in place. However, second place moved Norris up to second in the drivers’ championship, 69 points behind Verstappen and with 14 meetings still remaining, the British driver.
Lando Norris to win Spanish GP
Max Verstappen drove his Red Bull to victory at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday to extend his lead in the Formula 1 drivers’ championship.
Verstappen started from second on the grid behind pole-sitter Lando Norris. But the three-time champion overtook the McLaren driver at the first turn and then passed George Russell on lap three of lap 66 and never looked back.
Spanish Grand Prix qualifying 2024: Lando Norris to win Spanish GP
Norris tried to challenge late but Verstappen increased the pace to pass first. Norris finished second, followed by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton in third.
Verstappen said his moves to overtake Norris and Russell so early proved vital in allowing him to take the lead and hold off the hard-charging Norris.
“I think the thing that made the difference in the race was the start,” Verstappen said. “I led and I had a buffer. “After that we had to run defense.”
Verstappen took his seventh win in 10 races this season and his third consecutive victory at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalonia.
Verstappen has 219 points. Norris moved into second place with 150, overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who dropped to third with 148 points after finishing fifth.
Norris blamed his poor start for having to settle for second place – when he lost two places. The British driver got his first win in Miami in May and was looking for his second.
“I should have won,” Norris said. “I just felt bad, it’s as simple as that.”
Hamilton’s third place was the first podium of the season for the seven-time world champion, who is in his last season for Mercedes before joining Ferrari next season.
Norris was beaten off the starting line by Verstappen and Russell, who had cornered both rivals from his start from fourth on the grid and took a surprise lead after about 600 meters (yards) of racing until the first corner.
However, Verstappen was right behind Russell, and within two laps he had overtaken him, when his team told him.
Norris showed his excellent form by chasing both Mercedes after a tire change. He overtook Hamilton and then engaged in a lengthy duel with Russell midway through the race. Norris retreated, Russell counterattacked to move forward, before Norris finally came forward.
But Verstappen also benefited from the exit, which increased his lead.
Norris increased the pace in the final 10 laps and was closing in on the Dutchman, but he ran out of time and the track. He finished two seconds behind Verstappen.
Russell finished fourth, while it was a bad day for Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as neither Ferrari could compete with the front runners. Sainz, the Spanish fans’ best hope for victory, finished sixth.
Norris’s McLaren partner Oscar Piastri was seventh. Sergio Pérez in the other Red Bull was eighth after starting 11th following a third-place grid penalty at the last round of the Canadian GP. Alpine pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10. Fernando Alonso was 12th in his Aston Martin.
