Lando Norris picks the one race in his career that was ‘hardest to get over’

Lando Norris has picked the one race in his career that he admitted was the “hardest” to get over and there is no prize for guessing which one he is referring to.

You would not have to be a mind reader to know that Norris was of course referring to the 2021 Russian Grand Prix in which he came the closest he ever has done to a race win until rain hit the Sochi track.

Maintaining there was enough grip to stay out on the slicks, race leader Norris was later punished when he aquaplaned off allowing Lewis Hamilton, who had pitted for the intermediate tyres, to overtake for the win.

Norris finished in seventh, eventually pitting for the inters, and was distraught after the race. Two years on, it seems it is a moment that still lives with him.

When discussing how he gets over disappointment, the race in Sochi got its own mention.

“It depends a little bit on the reason for the result,” he told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “If it’s definitely through my own doing, [it will take] a lot longer to get over.

“If it’s my mistake, whether I crash or I spin or get a penalty, if it’s 100% down to me, even say 50% down to me, it’s a lot worse than if it’s just because we don’t have the pace in the car, things like that. So it depends a lot on the situation we’re in.

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“Sochi ’21 was probably the one of the hardest things to get over. Not simply because of what happened but also what was almost achieved.”

Norris went on to state that now, in his fifth season of F1 racing, he finds it a lot easier to overcome disappointments.

“So it depends on the situation of how things happen but I’m a lot better now than what I was. I used to struggle probably a lot more back in ’19, back in ’20,” the McLaren driver said.

“Now I guess I just look at it in a constructive way of learning what went wrong? How can you fix it? How can you be better at whatever the problem was? And just try and move on from that.”