Lewis Hamilton aimed a playful dig at Lando Norris over his F1 start reputation, one which backfired in Qatar.
With Norris emerging as a title threat to Max Verstappen in F1 2024 – before Verstappen ended that quest by securing his fourth straight title in Las Vegas – the McLaren driver has found himself more intensely in the F1 spotlight, with his race starts attracting criticism after six times failing to lead after the first lap when starting from pole.
Lando Norris has last laugh over Lewis Hamilton
Norris withstood the challenge of Mercedes’ George Russell to take pole for the Qatar Sprint, and as Russell and Mercedes team-mate Hamilton addressed the fans, Hamilton could not resist a playful reference to that Norris statistic.
“You should win today, the Sprint,” Hamilton said to Russell. “I don’t think Lando’s ever held off the line, so you should be good.
“You spoken to Lando?”
Russell, along for the ride with the banter, replied: “I don’t think… Has he held the lead at all this year?
“There’s a lot of grip on my left, so it’s going to be difficult.”
But, Norris would have the last laugh, holding off Russell at the Qatar Sprint start as team-mate Oscar Piastri made his way past the Mercedes driver into P2.
Norris would aid Piastri from there by keeping him in his DRS range, the drivers swapping positions at the line to give Piastri the win, a favour in return for Sao Paulo, as McLaren crucially took maximum points from the Sprint in their bid to see off Ferrari and win the Constructors’ Championship. Russell therefore was forced to settle for P3.
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Norris made the Mercedes drivers pay for that banter, and after the Sprint, explained exactly why he took it upon himself to let Piastri through to win at the line.
In the Brazil Sprint – when Norris was still in title contention versus Verstappen – Piastri had given Norris the victory.
“It was maybe closer than what I was wanting but I planned to do it since Brazil,” Norris said. “Just what I thought was best.
“It was probably a little bit sketchy. The team told me not to do it, but I thought I could get away with it and we did.
“Honestly, I don’t mind. I’m not here to win sprint races. I’m here to win races and a championship, but that didn’t go to plan.”
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