Lando Norris makes Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen vow despite "excessive risk"

Norris and Verstappen in Abu Dhabi — Photo: © LAT Images

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Norris makes Hamilton Verstappen vow despite "excessive risk"

Norris starts third in Abu Dhabi behind F1 title-chasing pair

Sam Hall

Sunday 12 December 2021 12:45

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Lando Norris has vowed to take any opportunity that comes his way at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix regardless of the F1 title fight ahead of him between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Norris will start third on the grid at the Yas Marina Circuit directly behind polesitter Verstappen and second-on-the-grid Hamilton.

Like Verstappen, Norris is primed for a strong opening on the soft tyre, in contrast to Hamilton who starts on the medium compound.

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Asked who has more responsibility for avoiding contact at the start, himself or the championship combatants, Norris answered: "It's both.

"Of course, you've got to respect that they're going for a championship and you don't want to harm anything that is going on there.

"You don't want to take any excessive risks because you know what they're fighting for, I know what I'm fighting for, but of course at the same time, we can still race.

"I'm allowed to overtake them. I can still race against them and if I have the chance to overtake, I can still overtake.

"It's up to them to try then and race back past like every single race.

"Of course, there's a lot of responsibility for me, a lot of responsibility for them but they have things to lose and I have things to gain.

"But I don't want to ruin anything. I don't want to be the guy that gets too involved as well."

Norris urged not too be "too cautious"

Although McLaren requires a significant points swing to jump Ferrari for fourth in the constructors' championship, Norris can climb to fifth in the drivers' behind only the Mercedes and Red Bull pairings if he outscores Charles Leclerc by four points.

Explaining how he will instruct Norris to approach Sunday's season finale, team principal Andreas Seidl said his driver should treat it the same as any other race.

"Whenever you are in such situations, the most important thing is just to do the same as you always do," said Seidl.

"Because if you try to be too cautious going into the first corners or you try to orchestrate something, you take this imperative experience the drivers have and these intuitive reactions away from them and then it starts to get dangerous.

"That must be the approach for Lando tomorrow.

"In the end, the objective is clear that we want to score a good result for us as a team and we want to get back into P5 in the drivers' championship with Lando.

"In order to do that, we need a good result and that is how we will approach it."