F1 News
Norris: Monaco race was about helping teammate Sainz
Jake Williams-Smith
Lando Norris says he drove a tactical Monaco Grand Prix in order to help his McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz. The Brit finished a disappointing 11th place, outside of the points.
His teammate however went on to finish a very respectable sixth, continuing McLaren's recent displays of genuine pace in 2019 compared to years gone by.
McLaren's strategy of leaving Norris out on track while his teammate was ahead allowed the Spaniard to build a gap to his race rivals so when he did finally pit, he jumped the early stopping Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen.
Speaking after the race, Norris admitted it wasn't his weekend and he had struggled to get to grips with his car around the Monaco streets.
“The whole race we didn’t have the best pace to be honest,” said Norris.
“I grained the fronts on the first lap of the race just with being behind so many people and being on the harder tyre, not being able to turn it on as well as the top teams, the faster teams.
“At the point we knew where I couldn’t do anything special it was turned more into a team game and I had to try and help Carlos and the team try and get a better result rather than just focusing on my own race.”
