Norris had “scary moments” when he came close to crashing on way to home win

Lando Norris admitted he came close to crashing on several occasions in the tricky conditions during the British Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver won his home race for the first time after moving up from third on the grid. The race began on a damp track and more rain fell after the start which made for treacherous conditions.

Norris said he was pleased with how well McLaren judged when to pit to change tyres as the track conditions changed. “As a team, we did a very good job,” he said. “I was pretty happy with everything. I think we made the right calls at the right time.”

He said he was trying to conserve his tyres over the opening phase of the race as he ran in third place behind Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. “I probably could have [pitted] for slicks a couple of laps before we did,” he said. “But in the first part of the race, Oscar and Max were fighting quite a lot and I was pretty patient; I didn’t push too much.

“I tried to look after my tyres a little bit more for some of the later stages when it started to rain again, but it was probably the wrong thing to do. I probably should’ve just pushed because we [did go] onto another set of inters.”

Norris took a second set of intermediate tyres as the rain intensified. He said he found it increasingly difficult to keep his car on the track.

“It’s just tough not to crash in these conditions. It sounds so obvious and easy, but the amount of moments you have, at turn one [Abbey], the aquaplaning in two [Farm], the aquaplaning into nine [Copse], where Hadjar crashed – you don’t realise how close we sometimes are to crashing and it all being in the bin in a matter of tenths.

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“They are scary moments inside, but then they excite you in a way, and then you open your eyes, you concentrate again. It’s scary and thrilling at the same time.

“They’re also fun races, but they take a lot out of you in one single race. So, a lot of decisions, but I think as a team, we talked through things perfectly well and we kept calm through the whole thing, and that paid dividends at the end.”

Norris said winning his home race “means a huge amount” to him. “At the end of the day being on top in your home race is very, very special.

“This is where it all started for me. I was watching on TV all those many years ago – Lewis [Hamilton], Jenson [Button], Fernando [Alonso] I think it was, that extremely wet race here or 2008. That’s when I really started watching Formula 1.

“Lewis won and I got that picture of him going around and seeing all the fans standing up. That picture of what an atmosphere in Silverstone is like, I dreamed of that for many, many years and today I got to live that feeling myself and see it through my own eyes.

“So it’s pretty amazing, pretty special. A lot of people – my friends and family, my brother, my sisters, my mum, my dad, my dad’s parents – every person that I could have here is here. So it’s more special than ever, 100%. And it was a tough race to do it in as well.”

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2025 British Grand Prix

• “It’s surreal”: Hulkenberg overwhelmed to score first podium in 16-year career
• Hamilton says his Ferrari was “the most difficult car I’ve driven in these conditions”
• Norris had “scary moments” when he came close to crashing on way to home win
• Verstappen says spin at restart was due to set-up, not Piastri incident
• Tsunoda collects penalty points for third race in a row for tangle with Bearman

Browse all 2025 British Grand Prix articles