Norris gets to 'live that feeling' of being Silverstone winner

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a day ago

Lando Norris did not let a cut nose dampen his celebrations after winning his first British Grand Prix.
Norris might end up with a second scar on his nose, to match one caused by a glass cut last year, after a photographer fell off the pit-wall barriers and knocked the McLaren driver's winner's trophy into his face as he was trying to celebrate his Silverstone victory with the fans.
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But a little while later he was up on the fan stage, two strips of medical tape on his injury, with team-mate Oscar Piastri and McLaren chief executive officer Zak Brown.
Norris did three 'shoeys', the celebration where a winner drinks champagne out of his shoe brought to Formula 1 from Australian sport by his former team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, and Piastri and Brown followed suit.
It was the least he - and they - deserved after a demanding, incident-packed, intensely difficult race in constantly changing conditions between wet and dry, which Piastri would have won but for a controversial penalty for what was adjudged a safety-car infringement.
Piastri will be stewing over that one for a while, but while Norris inherited the win, there was little to choose between them all weekend. And the Briton was pressing Piastri hard at the time the Australian pitted for tyres for the final time and served the penalty.
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Both had driven exceptional races, in a different class to the rest of the field, in a car that looked as impressive as it has done all season.
"Eventful race," Norris, 25, said. "It means a huge amount. Being on top in your home race is very, very special."
Norris started watching F1, he said, when Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were driving silver McLarens at Silverstone in 2007. He recalled that, as well as Hamilton's brilliant victory in the wet in 2008.
And now, with Hamilton and Alonso still in the field, Norris had taken his own win in a silver - well, partially, anyway, at least for this weekend - McLaren.
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"Lewis won, and I got that picture of him going around and seeing all the fans standing up, and that picture of what an atmosphere in Silverstone is like, and dreamed of that for many, many years," Norris said.
"Today I got to live that feeling myself and see it through my own eyes. So pretty amazing, pretty special. A lot of people, from my friends and family, my brother, my sisters, my mom, my dad, my dad's parents.
"Every person that I could have here is here. So, yeah, more special than ever, 100%. And a tough race to do it in as well."
Lando Norris celebrates the win with his family at Silverstone [Getty Images]
The win reduced his deficit to Piastri in the championship to eight points, and it was the first time he has won two races in a row. But he was wary of talking about the meaning of it beyond itself.
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"You can always class it as momentum or whatever," he said. "I don't know. It's whatever you want to believe in the end of the day. I think it's still just one race at a time.
"I give my credit to Oscar at the same time because he drove an extremely good race.
"It's two wins, but they've not come easy by any means. We've had good fights, but they're pretty strenuous, exhausting weekends because you're fighting for hundredths and thousandths [of a second], and you're fighting for perfection every session and I'm against some pretty good drivers. So, it takes a lot out of you, especially when you have a race like today.
"I've had two good weekends and, of course, I would love to continue that momentum, but it still requires more consistency. Two weekends doesn't mean anything otherwise. And I just need to keep it up and keep working hard."
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Piastri penalty 'very harsh'
Oscar Piastri was given a 10-second penalty for erratic driving immediately before a restart [Getty Images]
The events of the day were demanding on everyone, but the way the race turned was, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, "very harsh" on Piastri.
Piastri was penalised for braking hard in the middle of the straight as he prepared for the restart after the final one of three safety-car periods. This, in the stewards' view, "resulted in [Max Verstappen's Red Bull] having to take evasive action to avoid a collision".
Piastri was furious. But, wary of the stance the FIA is taking at the moment on drivers speaking out and not wanting to risk a further penalty or a fine, he kept his remarks well under control afterwards.
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"Apparently you can't brake behind the safety car any more," he said. "I mean, I did it for five laps before that. Again, I'm not going say too much till I get myself in trouble."
Piastri was bemused by the penalty, because all drivers know the leader's actions dictate things for those behind in this sort of situation, even if there are rules to follow.
The issue seemed to be that he had driven in this way after the safety car had switched its lights off, the point at which the rules say he must "proceed at a pace which involved no erratic braking nor any other manoeuvre which is likely to endanger other drivers".
Piastri said: "I hit the brakes. At the same time I did that, the lights on the safety car went out, which was also extremely late. And then obviously, I didn't accelerate because I can control the pace from there.
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"I didn't do anything differently to my first restart. I didn't go any slower. I can only comment on what I felt I did, which I felt was well within the rules, and I did it once already in that race. So, yeah. I don't really get it. I'll go have a look back."
The contrast to the outcome of a very similar incident in Canada two races ago between Mercedes' George Russell and Verstappen was notable.
In Montreal, after the stewards took no action, Red Bull lodged a protest, but it was dismissed out of hand.
Piastri said: "Going back to Canada, I think he had to evade more there than he did today. So, yeah, I'm a bit confused to say the least."
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There was also the feeling within McLaren that Verstappen may have 'gamed' the system by exaggerating how much it affected him.
"I don't think he had to evade me," Piastri said. "I think he managed the first time."
Team principal Andrea Stella said: "We'll have to see also if other competitors kind of made the situation look worse than what it is.
"Because we know that as part of the race car, some competitors definitely there's also the ability to make others look like they are causing severe infringement when they are not."
Verstappen said: "The thing is that it happened to me now a few times, this kind of scenario. I just find it strange that suddenly now Oscar is the first one to receive 10 seconds first."
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Was that because because there was no difference to what Russell did in Canada?
"Well, to the stewards, yes," Verstappen said.
The end result was that Norris has moved himself on to four wins for the season, one short of Piastri.
"I felt like I drove a really strong race," Piastri said. "Ultimately, when you don't get the result you think you deserve, it hurts, especially when it's not in your control.
"I will use the frustration to make sure I win some more races later."
Both have two weekends off to reset and refresh before battle recommences at the Belgian Grand Prix, the start of the second half of the season.
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