07 June 2023 , 16:18
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Lewis Hamilton told Lando Norris to be "a little more patient" after the McLaren star had his race ruined by a collision between the pair on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Norris was ahead of his fellow Brit on the grid after an excellent qualifying session for McLaren. Sunday was always going to be more difficult for him, given his car has struggled for race pace all season.
But any chance he had of scoring big points in Barcelona were scuppered after just a couple of corners. Having been overtaken by Hamilton, who started one place behind in fourth, Norris made contact with the back of the Mercedes and damaged his own front wing.
He had to pit at the end of that first lap and spent the rest of the race trundling around at the back, a long way off points contention. Speaking after the race, Hamilton was sympathetic for Norris but feels the 23-year-old has something to learn from the incident.
He said: "I just felt a big hit from behind, but obviously Max [Verstappen] and Carlos [Sainz] went quite wide and deep into Turn 1 and then they were coming back across, and I basically got in the wake so I had to be patient, and then I got a hit from behind.
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"I think it was a shame for Lando because he did such an amazing job. It's great to see McLaren up there on the second row. I think even if he was ahead of me going into the corner, we would have overtaken him because we had slightly more pace race trim-wise.
"[It has] not ended up being a great result for him but I think if he was just a little more patient, he would have had probably a better result, but we live and we learn."
Norris was visibly annoyed after the race but admitted the error was his own. "I didn't see that the Red Bull went off ahead of me and, because of that, I thought there would be normal pace around him too and everyone just checked up massively," he said.
It was another difficult day at the office for Norris (AP)"So, just unlucky in my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong, but just misjudgement from my part because I couldn't see the car ahead that had gone off, so unlucky, I think. But at the same time, we wouldn't have had the pace to finish in the points anyway.
Difficult afternoon, but as expected – P3 made us look amazing yesterday and we weren't confident in finishing in the points. I guess you always say, 'I could have done this, could have done that'. But, at the time, I tried to get across, I still had some slipstream from the car ahead.
"At the same time, everyone went right, so maybe didn't get the best of launches. Not too many excuses, to be honest. Just maybe could have fought Lewis more on Turn 1, but at the same time, he was pretty committed and I probably would have ended up off the track.
"Maybe would have been a safer option just to commit to going off – but like I said, I think just a bit unlucky. So, nothing more than that. It just happens, but it didn't change our day."