Norris attempted to overtake both Ricciardo and Sainz into the heavy braking zone of Turn 12 on Lap 1𝄹 at the Circuit of the Americas. 

The British driver dꦑecided to brake early as Charles Leclerc was running just ahead in fourth, meaning Norris settled into seve♍nth. 

“I was so scared, because the thing is,🎶 it’s such a wide track and it was three abreast,” Norris said. “I knew Daniel was on the outside so I had to be careful. I couldn’t brake too late because I knew Charles was just ahead. 

“The angle, I was on the apex and Charles was pretty much… I was going to T-bone him if I went in any harder. It got a little bit sketchy🐟, obviously didn’t pull the move off. Bit of a shame.” 

Norris finished the race in eighth having been jumped by Mercedes’🍒 Valtteওri Bottas through the pit stop phase. 

With Leclerc finishing over 20 seconds clea⛦r of Ricciardo in fifth, Norris conceded that Ferrari simply has the faster car at the moment.

“[It was a] tough, long race, not a lot we could do,” Norris added. “At times I thought we had better pace. But altogether, considering Charles was 20 seconds ahead or something on Daniel, I think it showed they [Ferrari] were just the quicker car aga༺in today. Disappointing we c🐼ouldn’t do more, that’s the way it is sometimes.”

“You💟 don’t know how much they’re saving, everyone is goin♔g to be doing something along those lines, everyone’s playing their own game.  Of course it sometimes yo-yos a bit, you catch up, then drop back and so on. Either way, even when we were at our best pace, the delta is too small. 

“Two-tenths ahead, it’s too difficult to overtake. You need to be one second quicker or something, we were never thꦰere.𒐪”