Lando Norris Scores Podium Finish In Austria

Lando Norris has scored a fine third-place finish in Austria, overcoming a harsh five-second penalty to pass seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton with 18 laps to go, to take yet another podium in his impressive 2021 FORMULA 1 season.

His teammate Daniel Ricciardo recovered from a poor qualifying to score a fine seventh-place finish, bagging a big points haul for McLaren in the fight for the Constructor’s Championship.

Podium For Lando Norris

After qualifying in P2, Lando Norris wasn’t overly optimistic of converting that into a podium with Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton behind him.

However, his McLaren was dialled in, and the Brit was mixing it with all the big guns throughout the race, and was great value for his podium finish.

“I’m extremely happy with today’s result. Another podium and a lot of points for us as a team. A very good day. The only thing that’s disappointing is the fact we could’ve been P2, but at the same time that’s also a big positive. Our pace today was extremely strong, especially in the second stint against very fast cars and against Mercedes. A lot of positives and altogether a very good day – a huge thank you to the whole team for their hard work and giving me such a great car. We’ll keep pushing to take this momentum into our home race at Silverstone in a couple of weeks,” said Norris.

Great Recovery For Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo has had his struggles this season, but the triple-header has been a good opportunity to spend more k’s getting accustomed to his car, and the Aussie will leave Austria growing in confidence after driving his way to a solid seventh-place finish.

“It was a nice day for the team with a podium for Lando and getting into the points for me. That was good. I just had a pretty fun race. It was busy, trying to attack and defend. It’s one I could enjoy and take some fulfilment from. The defence was tough. I was trying everything I could, every trick in the book to stay ahead. I think I held on as long as I could and Sainz was just a bit quicker at the end with a fresher tyre – but I can’t complain with the race and the result. A better day. Happy to have finished the first triple-header of the season. As fun as the triple-headers are, they’re tiring. Everyone can enjoy a break now. We’ll look forward to Silverstone and the new format there. It should be interesting!” added Ricciardo.

More Joy For McLaren

McLaren enjoyed strong results throughout the triple-header, and will now take a well-earned break before coming back strong at their home race of Silverstone in two weeks.

“What a performance today from Lando, Daniel and the entire team. P3 and P7 is an excellent result and continues the strong run we’ve had all the way through this triple-header. Everybody has contributed. A big thank you to every single member of the team here at the track, back home at the factory and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP for making this happen.

“After a strong race here last week it was great to see that we could increase our performance again and be in a position to battle the top cars with Lando. I’m just as happy with Daniel’s performance today – he scrapped it out with the Ferraris, did a great job and scored more important points in our Constructors’ Championship battle.

“The team is looking forward to a bit of a rest now after an intense triple-header. We’ll reset and get ready to go again at Silverstone. We’re already looking forward to our home race, with our fans and many of the team cheering us on from the grandstands,” concluded team boss Andreas Seidl.

McLaren leave Austria in third place in the 2021 Formula 1 standings, 19 points ahead of Ferrari.