Lando Norris was shocked to discover that he missed out on the ‘Driver of the day’ accolade at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, after it was awarded to Sergio Perez.
Perez was voted as the ‘Driver of the day’ after he salvaged six places in the race to finish third, after starting the race in ninth.
Norris on the other hand, finished ahead of Perez in second after starting from third.
Given that he defeated a Red Bull, Norris was surprised not to have won the award.
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“He got driver of the day? What the hell,” Norris said whilst speaking to Sky Sports F1.
“You need to work harder…” replied the interviewer.
“I need a quicker car!” Norris joked.
Perez almost got within striking distance of Norris in the closing stages at the Hungaroring, something which caused the McLaren driver to panic.
Norris was becoming agitated over the radio especially when trying to navigate through traffic, given that it was allowing the Red Bull driver to make up significant time.
He ended up finishing a few seconds ahead of the Mexican though, to secure back-to-back podiums for the first time in his F1 career.
The 23-year-old admitted after the race that he thought Perez was going to catch him, and that it was “game over” in the fight for second.
“There was a moment when they told me Checo did a 22.3 and I did a 23.2. I was like, ‘hmm, OK. Game over’,” he said. “Then I had traffic and it made my life tough,” Norris added.
“Degradation was tricky today. The tyres felt like they held in well, then they dropped off and came back to you. The stints were all over the place depending on where you were in the stint.
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“But at the end of the race the tyres came back to me a bit and I managed to maintain the gap to Checo. So, stressful. Even in the middle of the race I was like ‘I want to chill for a bit.
“In the back of my head I knew Perez is in a Red Bull and you see Max pulling away.
“A lot of it is tyre degradation. It’s not necessarily they are way quicker over one lap, it’s just there degradation. You need to make sure you are good at the end of the stints in case he catches me and to be able to race and put up a fight. It’s a challenge to know how much to push and save.”