A race where the podium positions switched on the last lap of the race for Lewis Hamilton, and no, we are not talking about Abu Dhabi GP 2021. In a year filled with uncertainties, F1 kicked off 2020 in Austria and it was Lando Norris who beat the seven-time world champion in the season opener.

The 22-year-old grabbed his maiden F1 podium finish in style. After returning from a hiatus because of the pandemic, Norris put himself in the spotlight with a P3 finish and grabbed his first podium in Formula 1.

Thus, followed the celebrations with the team and in the F1 nation podcast, he commented on the bitter-sweet award received from Zak Brown amidst the champagne showers.

The podcast host asked, “All of that rewarded you with a bear hug from Zak Brown, is it true that he cracked a rib? that he hugged you so hard?” 

To this Norris replied, “I would put a lot of money down saying he did, I genuinely was really struggling for the next few weekends, with my ribs, and my breathing, and everything.”

“So, I was really struggling, you know when something happens and you just think for like a little second, like, oh something doesn’t feel quite right like I have it with my neck sometimes or whatever.”

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“And you just think like, Oh something just, something happened and the next day you realize, Oh actually something really did happen. But it was obviously worth it, it was a reward, I guess,” he concluded.

How Lando Norris clinched Lewis Hamilton’s glory

With no racing action for several months, no one knew what the future holds for F1. However, once the sport received the green light to set up its tents for the racing action, all the drivers and teams returned to the grid hungrier than ever for success.

The Austria GP weekend unfolded favorably for Lando Norris as he looked in fine tune with his car. In qualifying, the young Brit clinched P4, but Hamilton received a penalty in practice, which promoted car number 4 to P3.

At the Red Bull ring, holding on to the podium position was an uphill task as behind him were Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton in cars arguably much faster than the McLaren. Nevertheless, the Briton kept his head down and delivered some thrilling on-track overtakes to find himself P4 on the final lap of the Grand Prix.

This is when the good fortune struck for the McLaren ace, as he learned that he trailed car number 44, which had to serve a 5-second time penalty. A radio message in the dying stages of the Grand Prix, saw the Briton deliver two laps, as swift as qualifying laps to take the chequered flag 4.8 seconds behind Hamilton.

Henceforth, making him one of the youngest drivers to finish on the F1 podium, among Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll. It was a stellar drive that marked the day when Norris stole Hamilton’s limelight.

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How do you rate Norris’s performance at the Red Bull ring?