Lando Norris had his sights set on a podium finish at Zandvoort, but his dream was shattered in the final stages. The McLaren driver was forced to retire due to issues with his MCL39. As a result, the gap to championship leader and teammate Oscar Piastri has significantly widened, and the Brit knows what he needs to do.
“I couldn’t do anything about it, I didn’t make any mistakes,” Lando Norris sighs after the race in the paddock. “It just wasn’t my weekend.” The driver looks defeated after his retirement at Zandvoort. “I was already unlucky in the qualifying with the gust of wind, and today the weather was against me again. That’s of course frustrating, and it hurts a bit. Especially for the championship.”
Winning Everything
Teammate Oscar Piastri has now pulled ahead by 34 World Championship points. “All I can do now is try to win everything,” Norris concludes. “That’s going to be very difficult, of course, but I’m going to do everything I can. I really thought I had a good weekend. I was close and without that gust of wind, I would have been on pole. Then it would have been a different story.”
In addition, Norris is surprised that the strong MCL39 failed in such a way. “I was pretty bulletproof, but then it’s inevitable that the day comes when things go wrong,” the driver continues. “You just have to accept that. The Mercedes engine was always very reliable, I can’t even remember a previous retirement as costly as this one. You don’t even expect things to go wrong anymore.”
