Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris speak on their Lap 1 contact in F1 Spanish GP which costed the latter as he needed to stop.
Having qualified a fine third for F1 Spanish GP, McLaren’s Norris had a start that he wouldn’t have wanted after a small collision with Mercedes’ Hamilton on Lap 1. The former tried a move on the latter when he was bunched up by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
But there was a small contact which forced Norris to pit for a front wing change and it ended any chance of points. Hamilton felt bad for the McLaren driver who did a fine job to qualify in the Top 3 as the contact dropped him off the Top 10.
“I just felt a big hit from behind but obviously Max and Carlos went quite wide and deep into Turn 1 and then they were coming back across, and I basically got in the wake, so I had to be patient, and then I got a hit from behind,” said Hamilton. “I think it was a shame for Lando because he did such an amazing job in qualifying.
“It’s great to see McLaren up there on the second row and I think today even if he was ahead of me going into the corner, we would have overtaken him because we had slightly more pace race trim-wise. And so yeah, not ended up being a great result for him but I think if he was just a little more patient today, he would have had probably a better result but we live and we learn,” summed up Hamilton.
Even with the hit, Norris didn’t think it was possible to excel with the pace that McLaren had. It was unfortunate hit but he didn’t feel too bad with it. “Just as expected,” said Norris. “We knew we were going to be slow and it was difficult to get in the points.
“Our target was to try and get into the points today, whether that was ninth or 10th or something. Obviously Lap 1 cost us everything but, at the same time, we would have been unlikely to finish in the top 10 today. I guess everyone’s expectations were too high after yesterday.
“At the start I didn’t see the Red Bull go off track, misjudged how much the cars in front were going to check up and I just clipped the front wing. It was the smallest of touches, but it cost us a lot, although I don’t think we would have finished in the points anyway.
“We tried to manage as much as we could but, at the same time, today was the pace that we’ve had all year and we were just normal paced. Yesterday was, I don’t know, unknown, a special day for us. As expected today,” summed up Norris.
Here’s contact between Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2023-spanish-grand-prix-norris-forced-to-pit-for-new-nose-after-contact-with-hamilton-on-lap-1.1767782438411389276.html
Here’s how F1 Spanish GP panned out
