Lando Norris led the comeback from tenth to fourth, but could it have been the podium if he hadn’t been so clumsy in the duel?
Ralf Schumacher called it “embarrassing,” and many viewers watching on TV must have wondered why Lando Norris fell for the same trick twice in a row at the Formula 1 race in Saudi Arabia—it could have cost him the podium on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton had twice let the McLaren driver catch up in a duel and then immediately overtaken him again. Norris was determined to get past the Ferrari driver in his chase and overtook him before the last corner. His problem: this meant that Hamilton was behind him at the measuring point and pulled past him again with DRS on the start-finish straight.
A lap later, the same scenario played out: Hamilton again failed to defend his position in the final corner with full force – and again he pulled ahead of the McLaren before the first corner, before Norris learned his lesson and decided to wait for DRS the next time around.
“Lewis knows exactly how to defend himself, of course, so Lando needed a few attempts to realize that he had to overtake him in Turn 1,” said team boss Andrea Stella after the race on Sky, admitting: ”That was ultimately decisive for Lando’s podium chances.”
In the end, Norris was just one second behind Charles Leclerc in third place. “When the racing is this close, it’s a matter of one or two seconds, and the time lost behind Lewis was already a problem,” said Stella.
LAP 35/50
A big lock-up for Norris as he heads to the pit lane from the race lead! F1 SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/jUwBw1tv32
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 20, 2025
Sky expert Timo Glock agrees: “He put himself in a position where he could attack again at the end, of course,” he says. Whether he would have managed to get past is another question. “But he definitely gave away one and a half, maybe even two seconds in the battle with Lewis Hamilton, which he lacked in the end.”
Norris himself, however, sounds different: “I think that was the best we could have done today,” the Briton said after the race on Sky. “Of course, it’s a shame to miss out on the podium. We were close, but Charles drove a good race, had a strong first stint, which allowed him to have a good set of tires in the second half.”
Norris with alternative strategy
Norris, on the other hand, opted for an alternative strategy after his accident. Unlike his rivals, he started on hard tires and drove a long first stint. When everyone else had pitted, he even led for a few laps before coming in for a tire change himself.
Norris returned to the track in fifth place, around five seconds behind Leclerc. Although both were able to catch George Russell’s Mercedes, Norris’ pace was not enough to attack Leclerc.
The Monegasque had also extended his first stint, but was initially on medium tires. “I think he pitted just three, four, maybe five laps ahead of me—that wasn’t enough to catch him.”
“Dumb question”
When asked if he could have caught Leclerc if he had pushed a little harder in the last stint, he replied: “No, I was chilling. No, come on. Silly question.”
“I pushed as hard as I could. I gave it everything. There’s no degradation here and you’re flat out the whole time,” said Norris. “It was a pretty boring race because there’s no degradation.”
Nevertheless, Norris is satisfied with his race given the starting position. ‘I just make life difficult for myself,’ he said, annoyed about his accident in qualifying. ”It would have been much easier and more relaxed to just drive at the front. So I need to help myself a bit more—and deliver better on Saturdays.”
Stella: It’s in our hands
Stella would agree with that statement: “He needs to improve his Saturdays a little bit, then it’ll be fine,” he says, referring to a “good comeback” and a satisfactory result.
“Leclerc had a very strong pace today, which ultimately prevented Lando from finishing on the podium, but I think the start on the hard tires worked well,” said the team boss.
“But there are a lot of ifs and buts. The biggest if is probably yesterday – with a good qualifying, which we could have achieved today. But that’s in our hands, we have that under control.”
Glock: ‘… otherwise he can’t win the world championship’
What remains from Saudi Arabia is the fact that Norris has lost his championship lead. Oscar Piastri has now taken over, increasingly taking control. “Oscar Piastri is showing what the car is capable of, and that’s where he needs to be,” Glock said of the Briton.
“He needs to take a step back and let the car do the work. It’s perhaps Piastri’s advantage that his heartbeat stays the same and he doesn’t have any peaks or emotional outbursts.“
”You can see that with Lando, he wants too much and then makes a small mistake that costs him a good starting position on Sunday. Just like the mistake in Bahrain. That can’t happen to him again, otherwise he can’t win the world championship.”
