Norris was “so scared” during three-wide battle in F1 US GP

Norris attempted to overtake both Ricciardo and Sainz into the heavy braking zone of Turn 12 on Lap 1 at the Circuit of the Americas. 

The British driver decided to brake early as Charles Leclerc was running just ahead in fourth, meaning Norris settled into seventh. 

“I was so scared, because the thing is, it’s such a wide track and it was three abreast,” Norris said. “I knew Daniel was on the outside so I had to be careful. I couldn’t brake too late because I knew Charles was just ahead. 

“The angle, I was on the apex and Charles was pretty much… I was going to T-bone him if I went in any harder. It got a little bit sketchy, obviously didn’t pull the move off. Bit of a shame.” 

Norris finished the race in eighth having been jumped by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas through the pit stop phase. 

With Leclerc finishing over 20 seconds clear of Ricciardo in fifth, Norris conceded that Ferrari simply has the faster car at the moment.

“[It was a] tough, long race, not a lot we could do,” Norris added. “At times I thought we had better pace. But altogether, considering Charles was 20 seconds ahead or something on Daniel, I think it showed they [Ferrari] were just the quicker car again today. Disappointing we couldn’t do more, that’s the way it is sometimes.”

“You don’t know how much they’re saving, everyone is going to be doing something along those lines, everyone’s playing their own game.  Of course it sometimes yo-yos a bit, you catch up, then drop back and so on. Either way, even when we were at our best pace, the delta is too small. 

“Two-tenths ahead, it’s too difficult to overtake. You need to be one second quicker or something, we were never there.”