SPIELBERG • On the circuit that birthed plenty of memes, Lando Norris delivered the last laugh.
Three years ago, as a McLaren junior driver setting the pace on the Red Bull Ring in the Formula Three European championship, he lost the race, crashing out with half a lap to go. While he went on to win the championship that year, the race was remembered for an image of the Briton cutting a forlorn figure on the trackside gravel, which gave racing fans ample material for their meme creations.
But in yesterday's delayed season opener, Norris earned his first Formula One podium, also with McLaren, on the same Austrian circuit. He had finished fourth, but was bumped up to third after Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was deemed by stewards to have been at fault for Alex Albon's crashing out of the race.
The 20-year-old was overjoyed at his finish, coming on the back of a fourth-best time in qualifying that earned him a congratulatory call from the Crown Prince of Bahrain.
McLaren are majority owned by the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat.
"I'm speechless," Norris said after yesterday's race. "There were a few points where I thought I'd fudged it up a bit... I dropped to fifth with a few laps to go and Carlos (Sainz) nearly passed me and I managed to get back past Checo (Racing Point's Sergio Perez) and ended up on the podium. I'm so happy and so proud of the team.
"It was a good race, a hard last few laps to push as hard as I can, I'm so happy for the team... given where we were a few years ago."
The Briton is F1's third-youngest driver to make the podium after Red Bull's Max Verstappen (18 years, 228 days) and Racing Point's Lance Stroll (18 years 240 days).
Norris' finish sent McLaren's garage into celebratory raptures. It was an occasion joyous enough to throw social distancing out of the window as team CEO Zak Brown hugged everyone in sight.
The Briton also earned a bonus point for his final lap, the fastest of the day at 1min 7.475sec.
It marks a remarkable turnaround for McLaren, who have not won a race since 2012 but finished fourth overall last year.
The McLaren Group was forced to lay off around 1,200 staff during the Covid-19 pandemic - weeks after a member of its race team tested positive for the virus on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix.
McLaren boss Andreas Seidl admitted that there was "nothing better" than Norris' result following such a "difficult period".
REUTERS
