“We’ll keep our heads up and keep pushing” – Lando and Oscar focused on the positives from Spain

Lando Norris admitted he couldn't have done anything more at the Spanish Grand Prix, as the unfortunate timing of a Virtual Safety Car ultimately cost the reigning World Champion a chance of victory.

Having lined up on Pole, Lando started strongly and had built up a 6.2-second lead over his nearest challenger by the time Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin came to a halt on Lap 15 due to a brake failure.

A VSC was subsequently called, but Lando’s commanding lead meant he had passed the pit exit, while Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen were able to pit and save valuable time due to the race being neutralised. By the time Lando pitted the following lap, the VSC period had ended, meaning he didn't get the same time saving as his two rivals, a situation compounded by the fact his eventual stop was a slow one.

Rejoining the race in P5, Lando showed all of his class and recovered impressively to finish P3.

It could have been even better, but Lando struggled to pass Verstappen despite his impressive pace, with overtakes proving almost impossible on the new circuit. Oscar felt that frustration too, spending periods stuck in the midfield unable to pass cars in front, eventually finishing P8 after battling front wing damage from the first lap.

Lando looked past the negatives and instead focused on plenty of encouraging signs in Madrid.

“Luck was not on our side,” Lando said. “I gave it a good fight to try and catch up with Max, but it’s difficult to pass. He didn’t really make any mistakes. A tough race, one that just got away from us. I felt like we deserved it, but that’s racing sometimes.

“I do feel like I’m working hard and getting a lot out of the car, and Saturday was a pretty phenomenal lap to get Pole. I drove a perfect race today, which is a good sign – luck just wasn’t with me.

“We’ll keep it up. We’re doing an amazing job, we’re working hard. We have to continue to work hard, because these guys are doing a good job, and it’s tough at the top. We’ll keep pushing, keep trying. More wins are possible, so we’ll keep our heads up and keep pushing.”

Among the main takeaways from Madrid was the improved speed of the MCL40 car through some of the slow-speed corners, which hadn’t previously been one of our strengths this season.

After finishing P4 at Monza last time out, Lando was pleased to end up on the podium here, and will hope to see similar positive signs in Azerbaijan in two weeks’ time, where we’ll introduce further upgrades to the MCL40.

“We were better here today, on a slow-speed circuit. There's some high-speed, but we were better in slow speed today, and that's a nice surprise, good reassurance.”

Oscar was also choosing to focus on the positives, despite a tough weekend in Madrid, where he came home in P8 after suffering early damage to his front wing. The Australian was also negatively impacted by the timing of the VSC after starting on Hard tyres.

“The pace in free air on the Hard was very good, to be honest,” he said. “But we were trying to recover the time loss from the VSC compared to the guys that pitted. It was just a difficult afternoon from the start.

“The positive we can take is that there are some good learnings, especially on how to get the most out of the car. We also had some decent pace on the Hard tyre in clean air, which is always encouraging. We will review, see what more we can learn and then and take it into the next part of the season.”