after impressive seventh win
Lando Norris notched up his seventh win in the MSA Formula Championship – keeping him top of the leaderboard with just one weekend left to contest.
The 15-year-old Carlin racer got off to the best possible start at Silverstone, with a win in the first race to open up his lead. After a difficult second race, he was denied a second victory in the final race after being hit while out in front under the safety car. Despite remaining in the driving seat 11 points ahead of closest rival Ricky Collard, the ADD Motorsports-supported driver admitted he was disappointed not to go into the final weekend in a more commanding position.
He said: “It was really good to get another win, the team did a great job in keeping me fast all weekend. But it was a really disappointing end. I was leading in the last race and was hit during a safety car period. These things happen, but it was frustrating as it lost me a lot of points.”
Lando was fast in practice and in qualifying managed to finish P2 and P1, despite saving his tyres.
Starting in second in the first race, he pulled away brilliantly and had a one-second gap by the end of the first lap.
He was forced to defend against teammate Colton Herta during the race to keep the lead, but the driver held on to the win at the end.
On the reverse grid, he started ninth and another great start saw him move into eighth. But with the plan to hold onto his last set of tyres until the final race, he didn’t quite have the pace to push on and struggled more as the race went on - ending up in eighth place, amended to seventh after investigations into on-track incidents.
The final race was drama-packed, with just 10 drivers finishing the race.
Lando got off to a great start from pole, but as he moved into the second lap, an accident that had happened behind him saw the introduction of the safety car.
While he slowed up, his nearest competitor didn’t, hitting Lando’s side.
Following a pit call, he came out in last place – but after other numerous incidents throughout the race, he reached the chequered flag in tenth.
It leaves the driver facing a nail-biting final weekend at Brands Hatch next month – with just 11 points between first and second place.
But Lando is more than up for the challenge. He added: “It should be really good, Brands Hatch is one of my favourite tracks, I won there last year and my pace is always good there. I just need to concentrate on my own race, try to get pole and go for the wins.”
