"Amazing race, an amazing weekend" - McLaren's Lando Norris thrilled after surprise P3 finish in 2022 F1 Imola GP

Lando Norris secured a glorious podium at the Imola Grand Prix for the second season in a row with a third-place finish behind the two Red Bulls. The McLaren driver was beyond ecstatic with the result, given the progress the team has made in the past few weeks.

In a post-race media interaction, Norris admitted that the team was never expecting to be in this position. Terming it a result that McLaren deserved after a tough few weeks, he said:

“Amazing race, amazing weekend to be honest. To beat one Red Bull and one Ferrari is much better than we were expecting always so I’m happy, the team deserved it. From where we were in race one to now scoring a podium, I think they all deserve it. It’s been tricky conditions this weekend so we’ve been able to capitalise on that as well, I like these conditions, so I always do quite well, same as last year! Just hard work and a great weekend, it all pays off.”

Norris took his first podium of the 2021 season at Imola and has continued with the trend this year as well.

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"We are comfortably third" - Lando Norris claims McLaren has the third fastest car on the grid

McLaren had a nightmare start to the 2022 season with both cars failing to make an appearance in Q3 in the season opener in Bahrain and correspondingly coming out of the race with zero points. Over the course of four races, McLaren has seen a drastic change in performance.

As reported by GPFans, Lando Norris claimed that now that the team has worked on its weaknesses, it is "comfortably third. The 22-year-old said:

“Now we are seeing more that Bahrain was a little bit more of an outlier. It was still a reality at the time. A lot of what we saw is still on the car, but we’ve just kind of understood it a bit more. We’ve worked on the weaknesses and we’ve made some improvements. There are a lot of positives from it but I think we are comfortably third, I would say.”

Despite starting Saturday's sprint race in third place, the Briton admitted his difficulties in analyzing his own pace compared to that of the rest, saying:

“It was just because of the guys I was next to at the start, it’s hard to judge your own pace compared to guys who are one and a half seconds quicker a lap. Especially knowing where Carlos [Sainz] was, and then Sergio [Perez], I just tried to make the gap as big as possible but no matter what I did they still would have passed me.”

Lando Norris now stands sixth in the drivers' standings with a total of 31 championship points.