Norris did not see "too fast" Verstappen coming

The Brit finished P2 at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix himself. He also believes that was a good final position: “It's probably the best result we could have achieved today.” Norris has had a tough few races, but in Imola, he finished ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri for the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix.

Stella already admitted he was surprised by Verstappen's speed. Norris feels the same: “I probably didn't expect Red Bull to be so fast. So, I'm happy with the second place. From the fourth starting position, it was a good race, but Max was just too fast today. So, it was a fun [race].”

Norris himself didn't feel good in the car: “It wasn't great. Sometimes it's different and you're just fast. So, it's a bit hard to say. It's just a very bumpy circuit, with a lot of high-speed turns where we might struggle a bit compared to the Red Bulls. That's been a problem for us throughout the season so far, the high-speed corners. So, we need to work on that, and maybe it hurt us a bit more this weekend.”

The McLaren driver also stated that he has always said his team had to keep working hard: “Max has beaten us several times in qualifying and their pace just continued into Sunday. Sometimes they were ahead, but on Sunday their pace was normally not too strong. They may have worked on a few things and their pace was better today. That's the price we pay for not being fast enough.”