Norris believes Italian GP drive was “one of my best F1 races”

Lando Norris thinks his Italian Grand Prix recovery drive to seventh place was “one of my best races” in Formula 1.

The McLaren driver started third after grid penalties shuffled him up the order, but a poor getaway had swamped him and eventually stuck in the DRS train led by teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

As a result, he and McLaren ran long before diving in for his regulation pitstop to switch from Mediums to Soft tires – but a slow stop cost him further time.

He, and Pierre Gasly were mugged exiting the first chicane by Lewis Hamilton after his slow stop, meaning Norris came home seventh.

Whilst he believed more was there for the taking, he still regarded the Monza drive as one of his best.

“I would say it was probably one of my best races in Formula 1 in terms of management and being patient with things,” Norris explained to media including RacingNews365.com.

“It was definitely my best this year, but almost in Formula 1.

“P7 doesn’t feel like it accomplishes a lot for what I feel like I did today, but that’s life.

“It happens, we’ll learn from it and move on.

“I probably should have finished P5, so I am a bit disappointed.

“It was an extremely poor launch before of incorrect settings – and there was nothing I could have done differently. A poor pitstop probably cost us the position to Lewis.

“Whether or not he would have passed me after a few laps, quite possibly, but we would have had a race and an opportunity.

“Maybe I could have hung on until the Safety Car, so fifth was where we should have been, but we ended up seventh.”

Norris expects a poor start

When questioned about the incorrect launch settings, Norris explained that he could not adjust anything after the one-minute signal and that McLaren had warned him to expect a slow getaway.

“It was just the settings for the launch, which you have to have and you can’t adjust once the one-minute signal goes.

“You’re not allowed to change, so nothing I could have done,” Norris explained.

“They told me and I kind of expected something poor.

“Of course, when the lights go out, you have to react and you feel like you’ve got to get going.

“It’s something that never happened before, and probably will never happen again, hopefully. Touch wood.”