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McLaren driver Lando Norris claimed he was 'hurting' after finishing P2 at the Imola Grand Prix on Sunday, as he believed he could have won from Max Verstappen with a couple more laps. The British driver finished behind the three-time world champion by the slightest of margins of 0.762 seconds.
The 24-year-old had a rollercoaster race as he was at one point in time defending from Charles Leclerc his P2 slot on the hard tires but was able to quickly turn the switch and went on the attack for the race win.
Speaking to F1TV in his post-race interview, Norris mentioned that he 'was pushing' the entire way and said:
"It hurts me to say but one or two more laps I think I would have had him. Tough. A shame. I fought hard right until the very last lap but just lost out a little bit too much to Max in the beginning, he was much better in the first stint."
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"In the second stint, we were stronger. It was a tough first half and a much better second half and one or two more laps and it would have been beautiful, but just not today," he added.
Lando Norris chimes in on his battles with Max Verstappen for the race win
Lando Norris stated that as a team, they are firmly in the battle with Red Bull and Ferrari for the top positions from now on and pointed out that they needed to get used to fighting for victories.
He told the media:
"I think we're at the point now where we can happily say we are in the position of Ferrari and Red Bull. So it's what we have to get used to. But we are all doing a very good job and it's business as usual."
"It's focusing on doing the same things, it's just we are fighting for first or second now. It's still a surprise to say it's frustrating not to win but after last weekend and the improvements we've made it's what we should start to expect."
Norris and McLaren would surely take some heart from the entire weekend, heading into Monaco as they have firmly placed themselves as front-runners in that 2024 season.
It would be interesting to see if they can challenge Red Bull and Max Verstappen similarly in any other races in the future as they did in Imola, and potentially even beat them on the track fair and square.
