Lando Norris has revealed that he was surprised to lose a bet that Ferrari would beat McLaren in Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix after claiming a second-place finish.
Norris managed to retain his fourth-place grid slot at the start and then overtook Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in the opening stages to rise into the podium places.
Having lengthened his first stint on the Medium compound, the Briton then capitalised on pitting under a mid-race Virtual Safety Car to remain in front of Sergio Perez.
Norris extended the margin over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the race’s resumption to open up an advantage over Perez that ensured he split the two Red Bull drivers.
Despite concerns over McLaren’s race pace following the truncated Sprint outing, Norris took the chequered flag with a five-second gap to Perez much to his surprise.
“Good, surprised so I’m very happy,” Norris said. “I’m happy for the whole team they deserve it, good pit stops
“Just today worked out, I don’t know why. I really wasn’t expecting it to be the kind of race we had today but comfortable.
“Can 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 so good day, good points and another podium so very happy.”
Norris had out-qualified the two Ferrari cars, but he suspected that the Italian marque’s superior pace in race trim would see Leclerc and Carlos Sainz overhaul him.
However, Leclerc was unable to match the McLaren despite being on identical strategies, with the Monegasque trailing 10s behind Norris come the end of the race.
“I was surprised by many things,” he admitted. “The lack of pace from Ferrari today, our good pace and I guess more us compared to the Red Bull which was surprising.
“So yeah, I mean I just wasn’t expecting today at all. I got everything ready to go home early and not be on the podium.
“So it’s a pleasant surprise but it shows the team has done a good job. We’re working hard and it’s paying off.”
Norris has disclosed that he was so certain that the Ferrari drivers would recover through the order to be Red Bull’s closest contender that he placed a bet on the result.
“I made it a bet too how far behind the Ferrari we would finish today and I thought 35 seconds and I was very wrong by that,” he conceded.
“So yeah happy to be wrong with myself for my own bets but yeah good day for everyone.”
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