F1 world champion Lando Norris: "Lewis Hamilton would have won in any case"

It was unlikely for a long time that Lando Norris would finish on the podium in the Barcelona-Catalunya GP. After all, the eventual winner Lewis Hamilton and the two Mercedes drivers Kimi Antonelli and George Russell were still ahead of him on lap 61. And the Formula 1 world champion had no chance of putting the trio under pressure.

However, championship leader Antonelli retired a few laps before the end - and Norris was the laughing third. After the chequered flag fell, he summarised: "Kimi was unlucky, but that's life this season. I'm obviously happy that I was able to capitalise on the opportunity that arose. We fought for this position under our own steam. And my pace was good enough for fourth place. That's why it was a good day for us, those were important points that I was able to score, so I'm happy with that."

Credit to Ferrari

At the same time, the Briton made it clear: "I lacked the pace to fight with the guys in front of me. And we still have a lot to improve, as the race showed. Because we are not even close to where we want to be. We were able to improve, but Ferrari had a lot of upgrades here and they worked well, they made a bigger step forward. We have to recognise that. We have to recognise that we just have to keep pushing and keep going and I'm sure we'll be where we want to be soon."

At the moment, Norris is still missing "a little bit of everything" when asked what is missing to win. "I think we're doing a good job, but we also have to recognise that the others have done a better job. Congratulations to Lewis, it's nice to see him back on the top step of the podium. It was a tough race for me, I did my best to keep up with the guys in front of me, but they were just too fast. Lewis dominated today, I think he would have won the race no matter what."

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