Norris: Hamilton can ‘stick middle finger up’ to doubters after win
· Yahoo Sports
Lando Norris hailed Lewis Hamilton’s first win for Ferrari as a “special” moment and says the seven-time world champion can “stick the middle finger up” to the doubters.
Hamilton’s first victory since he took the chequered flag for Mercedes at the Belgian Grand Prix in 2024 came following a brilliant drive as he pulled off a three-stop strategy to beat George Russell at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.
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The 41-year-old’s future in the sport was questioned after a tough start to life at Ferrari.
But Norris, who grew up as a Hamilton fan, says he has now issued the perfect riposte to those nay-sayers.
“It’s pretty special. I grew up as a fan of Lewis and I don’t know if I would still say I’m like that kind of fan, but I’m still a fan of him,” Norris said.
“And as a seven-time world champion, it’s always a pleasure to see those kinds of things. And with Ferrari again, it’s even cooler to kind of see that partnership come through and pay dividends, as it is doing now.
“I think you could see how much it meant to him. At the same time, he’s obviously had a lot of people talk badly about him and he’s got a lot of crap online from a lot of people, so it’s nice that he can stick the middle finger up to all of them.”
Norris claimed third following championship leader Kimi Antonelli’s late engine failure to seal the first all-British podium since 1968.
“Pretty special, pretty cool for us to represent our country that way,” Norris added.
Russell looked on course for a first victory since the opening race of the season but Ferrari turned the tables with a three-stop strategy before Hamilton claimed the lead after pitting under the virtual safety car.
Antonelli – who had won five races in a row – had his title lead slashed to 41 points from Hamilton, with Russell nine points further back.
The 28-year-old has been overtaken by team-mate Antonelli and questioned Mercedes’ strategy but is determined not to focus too much on the championship picture, having dropped away after failing to score at the previous two races.
“I think Lewis would have come through regardless, but he obviously jumped us with the virtual safety car and I got fortunate with Kimi’s failure as well,” Russell said.
“I do think I could have just mirrored his (Hamilton’s) strategy on the three-stop, but that would have maybe left me exposed to Kimi on the two-stop and maybe I wouldn’t have been happy about that in the end. So, I need to go through it with my team.
“I’m not really thinking about the championship. I’m thinking about just controlling my controllables.”