Lando Norris on “all-time high” with McLaren after finishing best of the rest in Portugal

Portuguese Grand Prix

Norris on “all-time high” with McLaren after finishing best of the rest in Portugal

McLaren driver has never been so confident after strong early season form

Will Gray

Sunday 2 May 2021 21:15

Lando Norris feels he is more confident in his driving than ever before after finishing best of the rest at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver followed up fourth and third-place finishes in Bahrain and Imola with fifth at Portimão after initially leapfrogging Sergio Perez's Red Bull at the start.

Norris, in just his third season of F1, has outpaced team-mate Daniel Ricciardo consistently this year with his form good enough for third in the championship compared to the Australian's seventh.

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When asked where his confidence levels stood, Norris said: “It’s definitely at an all-time high over the past three years, not just on track but in the paddock, working with the team and everything, they’re doing a very good job.

“Confidence in myself and confidence in the team is going well and we’re just executing everything we need to be executing at the moment. The strategy, a good start, good opening lap on my behalf, so things are going well.

“But they could very easily go in the wrong direction so we have to keep working and keep pushing hard.”

McLaren is embroiled in a tight battle to be at the head of the midfield with a resurgent Ferrari but Norris' form has ensured his team takes an 11-point lead into the Spanish Grand Prix next weekend.

Commenting on his battle with Charles Leclerc and former team-mate Carlos Sainz, Norris added: “It was extremely difficult.

"Obviously it was a long stint, I had Charles behind me on the hard, he boxed six or seven laps later so he could push a lot more than me.

“The thing that was tricky was Carlos trying to undercut me, which meant I had to push a lot harder in the later part of the stint, which made it a lot more difficult in the later half of the stint to manage my tyres.

“That made my life a lot more tricky. But we did what we had to do and I felt I did a good job managing the tyres so it was worth it.”