Norris: Australian GP carnage not driver 'stupidity'
Norris: Australian GP carnage not driver 'stupidity'
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.
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."
READ MORE: Verstappen wins Australian Grand Prix overshadowed by controversial red flag debacle
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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