Zandvoort winner Lando Norris/McLaren: “Kimi Antonelli was forced into a mistake”

Formula 1 World Champion Lando Norris was clearly pleased with himself and the world following the entertaining Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. The 26-year-old Englishman was asked how highly he rated this victory.

Norris replied: “Quite highly, considering that in many respects it was a very well-executed race – and on top of that, there’s the turnaround from Saturday to Sunday.”

“I was quite disappointed on Saturday; it took the wind out of my sails a bit to see how much we struggled in the sprint. I know it’s only a sprint, but every point counts in a world championship, and we simply lacked the pace.”

“I was missing that certain something that brings the car to life. On Saturday evening, we then worked very, very hard. I spent a lot of time with my engineers trying to understand what we could do better, how to manage the tyres and improve everything – better than I’d done so far and better than anyone else.”

“At first it was a mixed race, because the start of the first part of the race was pretty poor and reminded me a bit of the sprint, but when we put on the hard tyres, things came to life and the Grand Prix went better for me again. I finally felt I could win. I didn’t have that feeling in the sprint.”

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“If the car gives me what I want from it, and on top of that I’m driving at the level I’m at now, then I can win races. With the hard tyres, we became more aggressive, turned the tide, and I had the feeling in the car that I’d been hoping for. I thought to myself in the car: ‘If I’m not going to dominate this, then I at least want to force Antonelli into making mistakes.’»

“He made far more mistakes whilst I was behind him. We forced Mercedes to take strategic action. That gave us the opportunity to apply pressure and pick up the pace. So if I get what I need from my car; if I have the front-end grip I want; if I have the necessary confidence in the rear end when entering corners – in short: if I have everything I need to understand and predict every single corner – then I can win.»