Lewis Hamilton enjoyed an excellent afternoon on Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix, as the Briton matched his P2 from the Australian Grand Prix to secure his second rostrum of the 2023 Formula 1 season.
Hamilton started in fourth and quickly made his way into second, where he went on to have a somewhat lonely race.
However, his race could’ve very easily ended on the opening lap after he was clipped by Lando Norris, who was forced to pit for a new front wing.
Norris was alongside Hamilton on the second row, with the Mercedes driver having just been ahead into the opening corner.
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The McLaren driver unfortunately clipped Hamilton’s rear-left tyre at Turn 2, breaking his front wing.
Somehow, Hamilton escaped without suffering a puncture, something which would’ve ruined his race.
Norris’ race was ruined by the early incident, as he only recovered to P17 following his early pit-stop.
Hamilton was gutted to see Norris clip him given how well the 23-year-old performed on Saturday, with the 38-year-old believing his British counterpart should’ve been a “little more patient”.
“I think it was a shame for Lando because he did such an amazing job yesterday,” Hamilton said.
“It’s great to see McLaren up there on the second row.
“I think if he was just a little more patient today, he would have had probably a better result, but we live and we learn.”
The collision was simply nothing more than a racing incident; however, Norris didn’t think his patience had anything to do with it.
Norris put it down to an “unlucky moment”, rather than him being too eager to progress.
“I think it was more just a racing incident,” Norris said.
“I didn’t see at turn 1 that Max went off the track. He went a bit wide, so then he had to bounce over the kerb at turn 2
“Then everyone just checked up, and I was too close to Lewis to be able to react and brake.
“Just an unlucky moment.
“There was no gamble; they braked in turn 2. You don’t normally ever brake in turn 2.”
Sunday’s result was perhaps what McLaren were more expecting, with Norris’ P3 in qualifying having come as a bit of a shock.
Norris admitted that he simply didn’t have the pace on Sunday to match Saturday’s “special day”, to the extent where there’s “no point thinking” about top 10 finishes in the coming races.
“[Qualifying] was special day,” Norris added.
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“Some good teams struggled a lot and some of the worse teams did a better job … and we just capitalised on that.
“We’ve been off the pace all season, struggling to finish in the points in half the races. Today was just that.
“There’s no point thinking at the minute that we’re going to finish in the points, because we’re just not good enough.”