McLaren Racing’s Lando Norris says that the final Sprint Race of the season in Brazil today was good fun.

Norris started the race from pole but was overtaken by Max Verstappen at the start.

The Englishman was able to gold off Sergio Perez to end on the podium in second place.

Speaking following the action he said:

“It was good fun today. My initial start was good but the second phase of the launch was maybe a little bit on the safe side. These are things to improve for tomorrow but nevertheless the pace was strong as we got into the race. I tried to go after Max – but just didn’t have enough.

“I’m encouraged with how good our pace was today. We didn’t expect to be fighting Max at a track which doesn’t suit our car as much, so overall I’m pleased with my performance today. Tomorrow I’ll try to work my way through the field again and work hard to secure good points for the team.”

Oscar Piastri started the race from tenth place and that is where he finished.

Speaking following the action he said:

P10 today, there was some good racing out there but I struggled with tyre degradation from all the battling. Other than that, it was a fun race around a good circuit. We managed to get some important learning done ahead of tomorrow which will certainly help us in the Grand Prix. We’ll work to see what we can do in the race and hope to score positive points.”

McLaren Racing Team Principal Andrea Stella commented saying:

“A strong result for our team with a P2 in the Sprint race in Brazil. It’s important for the entire team after a qualifying session yesterday in which we didn’t capitalise on the potential of the car in Q3. Instead, today, the result was strong, with a pole position and a second position finish on Lando’s side. We have also shown decent competitiveness compared to Verstappen, which, in a way, is a good surprise.

“Starting P10 with Oscar, it was always going to be difficult to score points, and we have to remember this was the first long run ever for Oscar in Brazil. Nevertheless, we got very useful information to help us prepare for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. We’ll aim for a strong race and look to progress through the field and score good points with both drivers.”

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