Lando Norris quipped that he should have more world titles than Sir Lewis Hamilton after their thrilling battle at the start of the 2022 British Grand Prix.
Following a red flag period caused by a horrific accident for Zhou Guanyu, Norris and Hamilton crossed swords as they headed down the Wellington straight, and ended up wheel-to-wheel through Brooklands and Luffield.
The 22-year-old pulled off an outstanding move around the outside on the seven-time champion, before Hamilton eventually returned the favour and re-passed the McLaren.
Norris watched the action back and described the thrill of racing and passing one of the best in the business.
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“It was good,” he told Sky Sports.
“It’s always nice when you get ahead of someone that’s in a quicker car.
“I made the most of it, I tried hanging on, but I also just let him go, I didn’t put up too much of a fight.”
As the Briton watched himself pass his compatriot, he quipped that he should be the most successful driver in the sport’s history.
“Do you what’s even better? All the British fans are really there… I was like waving and overtaking,” joked Norris.
“Look at this, beautiful, beautiful! Oh my god, I should be an eight-time world champion.
“It was a lot of fun, it’s a cool track to be able to do this kind of things.”
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Norris was running fifth for most of the afternoon after Max Verstappen suffered floor damage in the Red Bull, but Alpine’s Fernando Alonso jumped the McLaren during the late Safety Car period when the British side pitted their driver too late, giving the double world champion track position.
“We had to make the call whether to stay on Hards or to box for Softs,” explained Norris.
“And we almost made the worst call we could, we boxed the second lap, so we allowed Fernando past, and we also allowed him to have a free pit stop on us.
“Whereas if I boxed first, I would have been on Softs, he might have tried to stay out on the Hards, and we’d have been on the better tyre that way so we just made the wrong decision… or we made the right decision, but just too late.
“And that cost us today which is a shame, but apart from that it was a very good race for us.”
The other McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo suffered another miserable day at the office as he ended the race down in 13th.