Lando Norris fires warning to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at British GP

Lando Norris has Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in his sights at this weekend’s British Grand Prix after suggesting he could get the better of the Mercedes duo at the race. Norris is currently 10th in the F1 Drivers’ Championship but impressed at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend to end the day in fourth place.

“It’s tough,” Norris said after being asked if he could be the top Brit at Silverstone. “I just suppose it’s us versus Mercedes, isn’t it? I mean, both the Brits are there.” The 23-year-old later added: “And for me to be the top Brit, I think that would be a pretty cool thing to do in Silverstone.”

Norris started the Austrian Grand Prix from fourth, one place ahead of Hamilton following an impressive showing during qualifying. He was passed by the seven-time world champion but reclaimed his advantage later in the race to secure a P5 finish on the track. And Norris then moved up a position after Carlos Sainz was slapped with a time penalty after the race had ended.

Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri could only muster a 16th-place finish in Austria. But the Briton was clearly delighted to outshine Hamilton and Russell.

“I think we definitely had the upper hand over them this weekend,” Norris added. “I would say every other weekend of the year that they’ve been ahead, this is the first time we’ve been ahead of them. So I don’t want to just be convinced to say all of a sudden, ‘oh, we’re ahead of Mercedes.’ I don’t think that’s the right thing to say.

“As we’ve said before, and we said all weekend, Austria has always been our best race of the season, the most competitive, most successful.

“So I think we know that at the same time, but we did take a step forward. Silverstone is full of high-speed corners, which have been a big strength of ours, maybe not so much straight-line braking, which is another strength of ours, but a good mixture, and there’s further upgrades and things to come.

“I would say there’s good potential. I can’t say if I’m convinced or not convinced or confident or not confident, but good potential for us to compete against them again.”

Despite his fourth-place finish at the Red Bull Ring, Norris has only racked up 24 points from nine races this year. And he will need to bag plenty of points quickly if he is to surpass the 122 points he finished with last season.