Lando Norris once had the opportunity of popping out the champagne even before the chequered flag fell. During the 2021 season, seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton famously quipped, “Such a great driver, Lando,” after the young Briton had elegantly thwarted Hamilton’s onslaught during the 2021 Austrian Grand Prix, despite being in an inferior car. Naturally, the McLaren racing ace was beaming with pride after receiving such high praise from arguably the greatest driver this sport has seen.
In his biography, author Ben Hunt quoted Norris as revealing,
“It was cool hearing it from Lewis’, more so than from any other driver in F1. You know he’s the best. And he’s the best for a reason. He’s good at attacking and defending, but I feel like I was capable of holding him off for twenty laps.”
Under normal circumstances, if someone was defending as valiantly as Norris was, it would have frustrated the driver behind. It is uncommon to see a driver compliment a rival, more so when they are on the receiving end of such a drive. Hence, Norris himself admitted that he would not have been as generous with words as Hamilton was during their battle.
While this particular exchange with Hamilton would’ve been a highlight for life for Norris, the race itself wasn’t a bed of roses. Late in the race, the Briton picked up a time penalty for a move on the Red Bull of Sergio Perez that eventually left him aghast. He was on course to finishing P2 in the outing, but was seemingly ‘robbed’.
Even Christian Horner felt Lando Norris was robbed of Austrian GP silver medal in 2021
Late into the race, a tussle between Norris and Perez led to the Mexican being run off wide coming out of turn 4. The stewards deemed it an infringement on Norris’ end. Then, they slapped him with a time-penalty that dropped him to P3.
In a rare turn of events, Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner came out in Norris’ defense even though the ‘victim‘ of the incident was his own driver.
Horner told Sky Sports, “I didn’t have a major problem with the Lando move. It was racing, it was hard racing. It was wheel-to-wheel. That’s racing. Otherwise, you’re going to get drivers just chucking themselves off the circuit and claiming penalties. So, it’s a bit disappointing.”
Nevertheless, this controversy never really saw the light of day as Hamilton’s radio praise for Norris is really what caught all the headlines that race weekend.
