McLaren

Norris: Australian GP carnage not driver 'stupidity'

Norris and McLaren got their season back on track at the Australian Grand Prix with a fine P6 finish

Jack Walker

Sunday 2 April 2023 15:26

Lando Norris kickstarted his and McLaren's season with a sixth-place finish at the Australian Grand Prix.

Having started 13th after a difficult qualifying session, the British driver rose through the field impressively, along with team-mate Oscar Piastri who finished eighth to take his first points in F1.

The result handed McLaren its first points of the season after failing to make an impression in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

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Norris' position was improved by the late-race drama that saw both Alpine drivers crash out of the race at a red flag restart two laps from the finish - with Pierre Gasly hitting Esteban Ocon when rejoining from the grass at turn one.

“Even before the chaos, the performance in the race was pretty strong. I had a good start, stayed out of trouble, stayed away from damage,” said Norris.

“Half your job seems to be avoiding people who are out of control, mistaking a lot of mistakes and crashing into people."

Chaos 'not out of stupidity'

Whilst the Alpines took each other out of the race, Logan Sargeant hit Nyck de Vries at the back of the field, Sergio Perez was run out of room and took to the grass, Carlos Sainz hit Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll ended up in the gravel.

On the number of cars that found trouble during the chaotic restart, Norris explained: “It’s not out of stupidity, it’s tricky in such cold conditions.

"You would think a hearted tyre to 60-70 degrees would give us some grip, but it doesn’t.

"You always want to break later than the guy next to you and sometimes you pay the price for that. It’s such a slow warm-up lap before the restarts so it’s hard to the get temperature."