Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has praised Lando Norris’ strong weekend at Imola, saying he did a “very good job of exploiting the whole car potential.”
After missing out on qualifying in second position for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Norris had an impressive race and finished in P3 to score his second-ever F1 podium.
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Sainz, who left McLaren for Ferrari at the end of 2020, said that although the Woking-based team had the edge over the Scuderia at Imola, he believes Ferrari will be quicker than them at some circuits this year.
“I think it is very tight, honestly. It is very difficult to pick from,” Sainz said.
“I think the McLaren has its strengths and its weaknesses. But what makes it a really nice fight is that we are quick in very different places on the track and that makes it a very fun battle.
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“It looked like in Imola, Lando did a very good job of exploiting the whole car potential, and he was on it the whole weekend especially from Saturday onwards, and he did a good race.
“Maybe they had a bit of the upper hand this weekend, and they had the upper hand, a tiny bit, the last two weekends.
“But as soon as we do a very good weekend and we go to a track that maybe favours us, I think we can be ahead,” he added.
Norris attracted plenty of praise after his exceptional drive on Sunday, and ex-F1 racer Marc Surer told Formula1News.co.uk he believes the young Brit could have the makings of a future World Champion.
“Lando Norris impressed everybody and also me. It was an outstanding performance,” Surer told this publication.
“For me, the more impressive thing than the race was the lap time he did in qualifying which was deleted. This was really impressive.
“And he had a clean race, which obviously not even World Champions could do in these conditions.
“But, the question is: can he repeat this?
“Because we always see some drivers on one track having an outstanding performance and the next race they are back to normal again,” he continued, giving the example of Valtteri Bottas, who he said is “unbeatable in some races, then nowhere in the next races.”
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