McLaren drivers took 6th and 7th place in the Shanghai sprint, although Lando Norris started from pole, but events on the track in the first seconds of the short race on Saturday did not develop at all as he would have liked. After the finish, he even apologized to McLaren, but Andrea Stella, the head of the British team, believes that this was not necessary.
“Definitely, the advantage of starting from pole was already lost by the time Lando went,” said Stella. “This happened literally in the first eight meters, and he and Lewis Hamilton went in turn 1 side by side.
At this corner there was an opportunity to take a wider line, but this part of the line was still too muddy and Lando did not expect his car to go off the line. That was a key moment because I think we had a chance to hold on to second position. It is unlikely that we would have been able to beat Max Verstappen, but our car, perhaps, allowed us to go faster than everyone else.
Theoretically, second place was the highest that could be expected. If we are talking about the fight for victory, we have to wait until we update the car.
But Lando didn’t need to apologize to the team for what happened on the first lap. However, he understands that he could have done better, and we, of course, appreciate that he tried to do everything in his power. But this only speaks of his human qualities, because he believes that he has disturbed the team. That’s not true, we just need to give Lando a more efficient tool, and then everything will be much easier.
About Oscar Piastri, who took 7th place, it must be said that he was riding on rolled tires, unlike Lando, who had a new set of tires. Therefore, it was a bit more difficult for Oscar, but we believe that both drivers will be able to compete for good results in today’s qualification.
2024-04-20 06:06:00
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