‘We could have easily been out’ – Norris says Piastri ‘got way too close for comfort’ in first-lap battle at Monza

Lando Norris believes that Oscar Piastri’s move on him during the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix could have potentially put both cars “out in that corner” had the Briton braked later, with Norris suggesting that his McLaren team mate “got way too close for comfort”.

After lining up on pole position ahead of Piastri, Norris initially held the lead into Turn 1 by covering off the other papaya car. However, Piastri was quick to fight back and the Australian squeezed ahead of Norris into the second chicane, before Charles Leclerc then overtook Norris for P2.

READ MORE: Leclerc thrills the Tifosi as he triumphs at Monza ahead of Piastri and Norris with bold Ferrari strategy paying off

From there Piastri spent much of the race in the lead, but an impressive one-stop strategy by Ferrari – a contrast to the two-stop plan adopted by much of the field, including McLaren – saw Leclerc take the victory ahead of Piastri and Norris in second and third respectively.

Asked after the Grand Prix if he had been surprised by the challenge from Piastri on Lap 1, Norris told Sky Sports F1: “A little bit. Obviously I would have just braked a bit later if I needed to. We had a big gap behind and, between us two cars, there’s no risk.

“I feel like he got way too close for comfort – we both easily could have been out in that corner if I braked one metre later. Obviously if I could rewind I would do stuff slightly differently, but it is what it is. Oscar drove a good race and so did Charles.”

Pushed on whether the team could have potentially scored a one-two result had the incident at the second chicane not happened – given that it allowed Leclerc through – Norris responded: “No, because… I mean, maybe.

“Charles won by two seconds in the end – the fact he got ahead probably gained him two seconds over the course of the race, so… Maybe, I don’t know. Charles just drove a good race, they did something with strategy that we would not be able to achieve today.

READ MORE: ‘We had everything to lose’ – Piastri opens up on ‘painful’ race as he's forced to settle for second in Monza

“We thought of the one-stop, we were ready to try and do a one-stop, we just couldn’t achieve it. Our degradation was too high on the front tyres, and that’s probably a bit of a weakness from us at the minute is front tyre degradation.

“From rear, we’re very strong – I think that’s why we’ve been so good at other races. But today was not a question of rear deg, it was front deg, and we struggled just too much and clearly Charles and Ferrari were better than us today from that perspective, and that won them the race.

“But we were ready for that, I think we kind of expected someone else to be very good on tyres, and it turned out to be the Ferraris. So yeah, if there’s anyone I’d rather win, it’s the Ferrari around Monza, so good job to them.”

Despite losing out on victory to Ferrari, McLaren’s result has helped them to close the gap to Red Bull even further in the constructors’ standings, with the Milton Keynes squad now only ahead by eight points.

Quizzed on whether his team are being too risk-averse amidst their ongoing championship battle, Norris reflected: “Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. We always review things, we’re doing a very good job. Of course today was not our day and we didn’t get things correct, but I wouldn’t say we got them wrong today either.

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“I certainly couldn’t have done a one-stop, being the second car is always a lot tougher than being the first car, which is a fair thing, that’s racing. But to try and keep up with Oscar in the dirty air means I had to use a lot more tyre, and using a lot more tyre made me box earlier, so that’s just the price I paid for not being in the clean air.

“But we both clearly suffered a lot more than the Ferrari, and not a lot we could do at the time. If we could go back and review things and change some things maybe we could prepare even more for it, but we knew our limitations, we knew what to expect. I feel like we still maximised today, we just didn’t quite have what Ferrari had.”