Lando Norris admits that he had been "expecting more" from the Hungarian Grand Prix after dropping from P4 to P7. The McLaren driver had put in a strong qualifying performance to achieve fourth on the grid, and initially was able to fend off the challenge from Lewis Hamilton behind. However, he was passed by Hamilton and Max Verstappen on Lap 11, and soon afterwards Norris pitted to swap the Soft tyre for the Medium. He went on to run the Hard compound in his final stint, and eventually finished the race in seventh.
Norris had "expected more" in Hungarian GP
While Norris was pleased with his performance in relation to who he was racing, he was left feeling slightly disappointed by his end result. "We did [have a good performance] against the people we are racing, really," Norris said after the race. "If you think of P4 as a grid position then you expect a little bit more on Sunday, and to end up 62 seconds behind just the next car ahead of me, it's a big challenge to do anything more from that, so therefore our race was against Alpine and the cars behind me." In terms of the Constructors' Championship battle between McLaren and Alpine, the latter have moved ahead in the battle for fourth, but with an advantage of only four points.
Why tyre wear had Norris "worried"
Norris admits that he faced an early concern in the race over the condition of his Soft tyres, and this is something that he feels McLaren may need to work on. "[In] the first stint, I think I destroyed my front left tyre after like six laps, and I was very worried, because we aimed [to pit on] Lap 20 or 25 or something," the Briton continued. "It didn't really go to plan at all… But then our pace on the Medium tyre, and I think our pace when there weren't any issues with tyres and management, was strong. "And [we were] stronger than Alpine today, which is good news and a good sign but yeah, we just seemed to destroy those tyres a lot quicker than everybody else. "So, that’s the only thing we have to really work on, but the middle stint was strong and the final stint was easy, I was just on my own and hoping for the race to end! "[It was] challenging, but we did everything we could, and P7 I have to be happy with."
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