They are two great friends who become direct rivals when they get into the car and that inevitably leads to friction. This is what happened at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Formula 1 It is an ultra-competitive environment where it is difficult for drivers to befriend each other, especially if they are teammates. However, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz have been great friends since they both arrived at McLaren in 2019 and their competitive genre on the track has thus far been no problem for them.
Until the Sao Paulo Grand Prix disputed this weekend in Interlagos, in which both met at the start of the main race on Sunday. Lando Norris, who started much better than Carlos Sainz, attacked his former teammate on the right, a space that the Madrid native tried to protect without success.
“He turned a bit early at Turn 1 and we got tangled up”
However, Norris was excessively impatient and wanted to get fully back on the track – he was using part of the paved right shoulder – before he had overtaken Sainz, touching the Ferrari and puncturing his left rear wheel.
“There was really nothing else I could have done to avoid the Ferrari. I mean, I had to start turning left for the curve and the guy inside knows it too, so there has to be mutual respect, right? “Norris claimed after the race.
«I have gone to the right, there was a gap, I started much better. I couldn’t keep seeing him in my rear view mirrors all the time and I couldn’t see him from above, so I put my car in the best spot I thought was possible. I did not want to crash, so I thought I would need space, but it was not enough, “lamented the British.
Ferrari runs away
This was a crucial contribution to Ferrari leaving Brazil with 19 more points in the draw, increasing its lead over McLaren in the constructors’ championship to 31.5 with only three Grands Prix to be contested.
“Obviously, it benefited them much more than it did us. It’s frustrating because I scored one point and could have gotten quite a few more today. Ferrari was probably faster than us today, but I would have been ahead of them at the start and they would have had to fight a lot »Norris stated.
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Yeah, it’s better than nothing, it might be worth something at the end of the season, it might not. But we did our best. I hope the remaining circuits suit our car a bit more than here and in previous races.. But Ferrari is strong, probably stronger than us at the moment. It’s going to be tough unless they make big mistakes, but we will try.
Sainz sees nothing wrong with his action
Finally, Carlos Sainz He was asked about what had happened and, although he had not yet seen him from outside the car, he considered that he had not committed any infraction.
“I need to analyze it because it is a very fine line. Obviously the curve is going to the left and I was holding the inside. I don’t think I deliberately did anything against him. If anything, I felt like it turned a little early in Turn 1 and we got tangled up, but racing incidents do happen. I’m sorry for him if I did something wrong, but to be honest, I don’t think I did it. “, he claimed.
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It is not to be expected that this incident will affect the friendship between the two drivers, but when it comes to the championship it may end up being a definitive maneuver.
Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz hopes to definitively solve his problems with the starts. “I feel that I have been the fastest in the middle of the grid in the last two events, but I lost it in the exits. I did the same start as yesterday, the same procedure, but today for some reason it didn’t work and I don’t understand it.
«We have had a lot of roller skating and we have to analyze what happened, if it was something strange with the clutch or the tire, because it was hard for me to be in the top five », he concluded.