Lando Norris sparks backlash as McLaren star caught snapping at Lewis Hamilton
Lando Norris shared the podium with Lewis Hamilton in Hungary but made some snappy comments to his rival.
Lando Norris has received some backlash from fans after snapping at Lewis Hamilton's misconstrued compliment in the Hungarian Grand Prix cooldown room.
After joining race winner Oscar Piastri and team-mate Norris ahead of the podium ceremony, Hamilton exclaimed: “Whoo, you guys are fast!” The McLaren driver then snapped back: “Yeah, well you had a fast car seven years ago.”
This provoked another playful response from the seven-time world champion, who added: ”Seven years ago? That's a long time. Were you here seven years ago?" Norris then hit back: “You know, you had a quick car. You made the most of it, now it's us."
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Hamilton immediately sought to clarify that his comment was not meant to be a slight against the younger Brit. “I wasn't complaining, I was just complimenting you on your car."
Norris’ irritable attitude was, in many ways, understandable. For the third time in a Grand Prix, the 24-year-old ended the opening lap behind the leader after securing pole position, and to his team-mate no less. Then, after being gifted the lead with an undercut, he was instructed to hand the position back to Piastri.
Adding even more frustration into the mix was the fact that the Hungarian GP represented a golden chance to drastically reduce Max Verstappen’s advantage at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings.
But that did not stop fans from showing their own frustrations on social media. Reddit user u/drop_table_uname said: "Lewis being very nice and Lando can't take a compliment." While u/proteinator reacted: "Lando being sassy isn't gonna go down well one day lol."
Another, u/LenaRybakina, wrote: "Lando can be a bit bratty at times huh?" Though u/nyluhem said of Norris: "He's all wound up and argumentative, he'd have taken anything said negatively."
Verstappen had his own troubles in Hungary. The three-time world champion didn’t have the pace to hang onto Piastri or Norris during the opening stint and was successfully undercut by both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc at separate points in the race.
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With Verstappen faltering, the opportunity was there for Norris to eat into his advantage with a maximum points haul. The extra seven points awarded for a victory would have brought the gap down to 69, and while that is still a considerable margin at this stage of the season, McLaren’s performance is trending towards a championship fight.
Bubbling under the surface is a more significant displeasure with McLaren’s strategy calls. Norris felt like he was denied a sure-fire victory in Montreal in June, and the Woking-based team missed an opportunity to beat Hamilton to the top step of the podium in Silverstone prior to the Hungarian GP.
Those results, combined with the unfortunate events that transpired between Norris and Verstappen in Austria, contribute to a growing list of ‘what ifs’ for the 24-year-old, who is chomping at the bit to ignite a true title fight.
