Norr𒁏is dropped like a stone from seventh on the grid as McLaren’s lack of straight-line speed left him exposed.

Things got worse for the British drܫiver when he switched 🃏to the hard tyre, dropping further down the order.

McLaren’s decision to fit him with the softs proved crucial 🧸to his late-race recovery, propelling him into the top seven as he showed great pace in clear air.

Norris ultimately held on to finish seventh despite late pressure from168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Esteban Ocon.

Reflecting on the start at Spa, Norris admitted it was “impossible to overtake” with McLaren’s downfor🐼ce levels.

“I was barely making eighth gear,” he said. “I was that slow on the straights. I just couldn’t defend, I couldn't attack. It was impossible to overtake. I didn’t overtake one person on the straights. I was too slow. I only overtook two or three people today and that was all in the corners. It w⭕as painful. 

“The beginning was so painful. We tried to go on the hard - the hard wasn’t a good enough tyre. So we had one thing left to try and that was to put a soft tyre on, and this wa🌜s on Lap 24, Lap 25. So I was expecting to box again for another soft at some point but we were somehow in seventh. We undercut like 10 cars I think which I was pretty surprised by - ൩a good surprise of course but I thought I’d be boxing again. 

“They were like we are going to try and go to the end and I was like… I pushed the tyres so much in the 🅰beginning I thought my race was going to be pretty much over and I was going to start to struggle too much. We kept the tyres alive and stayed in P7. stayed ahead of Esteban who was closing quite quickly. I am happy.”

There was some speculation in the middle of the race that Norris was nursing a steering issue - some🦩thing Norris dismissed when asked abo🐎ut it afterwards.

“Who said that? No. We were just that slow,” he added. “Everyone was overtaking me before the DRS activation zone. Honestly, I had a run on Alex out of Turn 1. I was coming at him out of Turn 1, I had new tyres, he had old tyres, and I think by the end of the straight he pulled three or four car lengths from m🤡e and this was me with DRS, using overtake - it was just painful. I couldn’t actually overtake a car on the straight today. 

“Painful. We got it wrong - we’ve admitted it already. We were way too high on downforce and it didn’t help us out in a☂ny way. We will review it and makꦚe sure we do a better job next time.”