Admitting Lewis Hamilton “played a good game” with DRS in their Saudi GP battle, Lando Norris has had a lightbulb moment over how he will get his title push back on track.

And that will involve trying to “chill out”, “trust” his outright speed – which he thinks is stronger than that of any other driver on the F1 grid – and look to set himself up better in qualifying after a challenging triple-header.

New Norris plan after Lewis Hamilton battle: Can he be stopped?

Having crashed out early in Q3 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Norris had a recovery mission on his hands from P10 on the grid. But, he would encounter a fierce opponent in the form of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who still remembered a few tricks from that infamous DRS battle with Max Verstappen in Jeddah back in 2021.

With the DRS detection point for the main straight located just out of the Turn 27 hairpin, Hamilton was twice happy to concede track position to Norris at that final corner, as it means he got DRS to activate down the straight and shoot back ahead.

The second time around saw Hamilton brake heavily into the corner, something which Sky F1 commentator and pundit Martin Brundle deemed “a bit naughty”, but it was a case of third time lucky for Norris as he passed Hamilton and made it stick, going on to score a P4 finish.

Asked on the F1 Nation podcast how satisfied he was with that performance, Norris said: “I mean, I was satisfied.

“Lewis played a good game in the beginning. So, it took me three laps to get past Lewis. And if I’m complaining about everything, which I always do… The first one was just, I thought I would get away with getting him and then pulling away.

“The second one, you know, he was pretty early on the brake… And I wanted to try to avoid him, because he kind of caught me off guard a little bit, which meant he did two in a row.

“And then obviously, third time, I learned my lesson.

“But, that was probably the only thing. The rest of it was a good race. The pace was very strong. To finish nine seconds off the lead, I was pretty surprised by, because around here, the clean air, it’s incredible the difference it makes.

“Even when the one car is five seconds ahead, you don’t think it’s affecting you, he pits out the way, then the car comes alive, the tyres cool down a little bit, so it’s tough to follow.

“Like the overtaking wasn’t too bad, but just getting within the one second was probably the hardest bit. But I’m happy with the fourth. It was a good recovery.”

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

With Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri taking a second win of the season in Saudi Arabia, the Aussie has booted Norris off top spot in the Drivers’ Championship, establishing a lead of 10 points.

It was a far from ideal setback for Norris, who suffered that Q3 crash off the back of bluntly explaining in Bahrain that he was not gelling with the McLaren MCL39.

But, with the refuge of a free weekend before Miami, Norris believes his fightback starts with taking pressure off himself and trusting his own speed.

Put to him that it looked like he was having fun during the Saudi Arabian GP, Norris replied: “I mean, I was trying to. It’s when I perform well is, you know, when I’m having fun and I’m relaxed.

“I’m probably just putting a bit too much pressure on myself at the minute, not because of any reason, and not because of the championship and all these things, just because I just put too much pressure on myself, because I want to do well, like I want to do so well, you know. I want to be pole. I want to win. I want to be perfect.

“And I think I need to accept a little bit more that I’m not going to be perfect and I’m making mistakes because I’m trying to be perfect, rather than the other way around.

“So I think I just need to chill out a little bit, have a bit more trust in my speed, because my speed today and my speed in every race this season has been, I think, the best. I’m very confident that I can win the races if I just give myself a better chance on Saturdays.

“So, it’s easier said than done, and you know, I need to go out and do a better job on Saturdays, but that’s what I’ll be working on.”

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