In the race in Shanghai, Norris came in second. He made a pit stop when there was a safety car on the track, and that helped him get ahead of Sergio Perez. Norris was able to take care of his hard tires well and stay ahead of Perez comfortably.
McLaren didn’t think they would do well at this track because it’s not one of their best. They usually do okay in qualifying but struggle with their tires during the race.
Norris started the sprint race in first place but fell back to sixth after a bad start. He ended up ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri but behind both Ferraris.
Because of their tire problems, Norris made a bet with his race engineer, Will Joseph. He thought he would finish 35 seconds behind Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, but he ended up finishing 10 and 20 seconds ahead of them.
“I made a bet on how far behind the Ferraris we would finish today, and I was very wrong about that,” Norris said. “I’m happy to be wrong with myself and my own bets. I’m happy for the whole team; they deserved it.”
He added, “Today just worked out. I don’t know why. I really wasn’t expecting it to be the kind of race we had today. But I got comfortable, could manage the tyres a lot, which was a much easier task than what I had yesterday. And I could just push; the car felt great and felt comfortable.”
Norris was surprised that Ferrari didn’t do well in China and that he was able to do better than one of the Red Bulls. Because of this, fans voted him the ‘driver of the day.’
“I was surprised by many things, the lack of pace from Ferrari today, our good pace comparing to the Red Bull, which was so surprising. So I just wasn’t expecting today at all,” he said.
“It shows the team have done a good job. We’re working hard and it’s paying off.”
