Lando Norris has admitted he uttered expletives in the cockpit when the Virtual Safety Car was called once he had passed the pit in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix.
Norris had overtaken Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin to be running in third during the nascent stages of the race and was promoted to second as Sergio Perez pitted.
McLaren had informed Norris that he would be running an extended first stint to counter the strategical move that Ferrari seemed to be planning with Charles Leclerc.
The distribution of the VSC to clear Valtteri Bottas’ stricken Sauber at Turn 11 on Lap 22 arrived once Norris had passed the pit entrance while Ferrari stopped Leclerc.
Norris has revealed he was cursing when McLaren was denied that chance, but the VSC remained active and was upgraded to a full Safety Car to save his exasperation.
“I knew it [would come],” he said. “There was a few F-words and S-words and so on. I knew it because it was obvious it was going to be a VSC, but it didn’t come out.
“I was saying to myself, I bet it’s going to come out as soon as I go around the last corner, and it literally did. Even my engineer said it. I said it to him.
“Luckily, it stayed out a long time and then it obviously went to Safety Cars. It was good. I think our strategy worked out well.
“I felt confident in the first stint, so I could go a very long time. If the VSC went out before I got around to the pit lane, I would have been a lot more annoyed than I am right now.
“Things went our way, because it made the Red Bulls have to stop again. That obviously put me out of Checo, put the Ferrari in between us, and that probably saved me a little bit.”
Norris would switch to the Hard compound with the intention of going to the end of the race, with Leclerc’s Ferrari and Perez’s Red Bull situated behind on the restart.
But despite the pre-race assessment that Ferrari would be too strong for McLaren, Leclerc dropped back from Norris’ tail and allowed him to create a sizeable margin.
Although Perez would manage to overhaul the Monegasque driver in the closing stages, the Mexican concedes his degradation had been too high to close on Norris.
Asked if he expected a tougher fight, Norris replied: “Hard to say. I think it’s a track where when you’re in control and you can manage things, it can really be in your favour.
“I think that’s where the race was so different for us yesterday. I was behind the whole pack. You overheat your tyres, you just struggle. There’s not a lot you can do.
“Today, I could control things on my own. I could break away from Charles very quickly, and then Charles was holding up Checo a lot.
“Checo probably had to use a lot of his tires to try and get past him. It depends how you think of it.
“I maybe expected a bit more of a battle, but when I knew how much he pushed in the beginning to pass the Ferrari, it allowed me to be a bit more comfortable, which was a nice thing.”
