Lando Norris says confidence is “at an all-time high” after a third top-five finish in 2021 at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
Like Imola, the McLaren driver started from P7 to run fourth early on at Portimao following some great overtakes, albeit he wouldn’t keep the Red Bull of Sergio Perez behind for long.
After that, Norris admits it became a “race of two halves” as he went from pushing forward to pace management, holding off Charles Leclerc towards the end.
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But P5, in addition to the fourth in Bahrain and third in Emilia Romagna, means Lando still sits third in the Drivers’ standings, ahead of both Perez and Valtteri Bottas.
“Confidence is definitely at an all-time high not just on the track but in the paddock, working in the team, they’re doing a great job, so confidence in myself and confidence in the team,” he said post-race.
“Things are going well, but they can quickly go in the wrong direction so we’ve got to keep working and keep pushing hard.”
What is giving Norris more optimism is the clear progress McLaren has made since last year, something that was highlighted at Portimao as he finished comfortably on the lead lap.
“I think the fact we were good here gives us some good confidence for other tracks for sure,” he added.
“We definitely struggled a bit here last year, so it’s nice to see some of the improvements we made.
“Yesterday [in qualifying] we maybe struggled a little bit more than we were expecting, or maybe more today we did a little bit better than we were expecting. But the car felt good.
“It was still not easy to drive, still quite tail happy a lot of the time, especially when it gets windy, but we’ve obviously made a lot of progress, and compared to the other guys, we had very good pace.
“So I’m happy, but it wasn’t like it was easy. Charles [Leclerc] was pushing me a lot for the whole [final] stint. So we’ve still got work to do to make my life easier, which is always nice, but we’ll keep pushing.”
