Brazilian GP: First reaction as Lando Norris wins ‘very tough race’ from storming Verstappen

Lando Norris lavished praise on his McLaren team as he ended the reigning Formula 1 champions’ five-race run without a podium with victory in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris mastered changing conditions to convert pole position for the second season running at Interlagos, ahead of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar in the Red Bull cars.

Lando Norris reacts to dominant Brazilian GP win

“It was a very tough race, very, very tough,” Norris expressed.

“Obviously not the best of launches off the line, but a lot of challenges today.

“With the conditions, going on slicks in the wet is always tough, especially when you’re pushing for the lead and trying to catch up a little bit.

“So the main thing today was I just kept it cool, and I didn’t make any mistakes, and I had the pace when I needed to.

“So it was good. Nice to be back on the top step, and what a place to do it as well.”

Asked how confident he was that he would be able to retrieve the lead, having lost out to Kimi Antonelli at the start, Norris replied: “I mean, I’m trying my best.

“And I think, like this weekend, we had an opportunity to get a pole yesterday; we had an opportunity to win, and I feel like most times this year when there’s been an opportunity, I went for it, and we’ve been able to achieve it.

“So I have to say a big thanks to the team because they’re still working very hard. And it’s annoying when you can’t give them a good result back like the last few weeks.

“But certainly this weekend, I feel like we’ve been able to give something back to them and give them a little bit of reward for their hard work. So always a big thanks to them.”

Red Bull duo react to double podium at Interlagos

“Yeah, it was a challenging race,” Verstappen, who went from 21st on the grid to second, said.

“I think the first few laps, of course, were very important. I overtook a lot of cars.

“And actually, that first stint I think was really, really strong.

“Unfortunately, after that, I don’t know if we picked up some kind of damage because the car felt like [the] complete opposite to anything that I felt the whole weekend. It’s a really weird balance.

“Unfortunately, once I got into P2, I couldn’t really make any inroads. So we have to understand what went wrong there.

“But I mean, starting P21 and being on the podium in second, I think is a very good result.”

More from the Brazilian GP

Hadjar concurred with his teammate’s assessment of the conditions: “Oh yeah, it was so, so difficult, so challenging, especially switching from the inter to the soft tyre. Yeah, it was extremely difficult, especially in the pit lane; you saw how tricky it was to drive.

“And then more rain at the end, so happy to be standing third today.

“But yeah, I need to keep making a bit less mistakes because I could have avoided a little awkward situation with Max, so I just want to apologise because I think on that stint I could have kept it a bit more on the track.

When asked how tough it was to keep Antonelli at bay, Hadjar replied: “It was so hard because he was behind me; I was testing the grip for him basically.

“I could see he was challenging me a lot; I was on ice, and he was on ice as well, but yeah, it was well managed.

“I nearly shunted into my pit crew when boxing, but they did a fantastic job. They kept their count and [the] pit stop was fast, so big thanks to the boys.”

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