Lack of pace for Norris turned Monaco GP into 'team game'

Lando Norris's performance was capped in Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, compelling the McLaren driver to play the team game to protect the position of team mate Carlos Sainz.

Starting P12, Norris lost a couple of positions at the start but the McLaren rookie eventually found his way back into the top-ten but with the difficult task of having to manage his medium tyres for a long second stint.

Caring for his rubber meant a slight hit to Norris' pace which in turn led to the Brit acting as a buffer between for Sainz who was running two spots ahead.

• Sainz delighted with 'best move of my career'

"The whole race we didn’t have the best pace to be honest," said Norris, quoted by Motorsport Week.

"I grained the fronts on the first lap of the race just with being behind so many people and being on the harder tyre, not being able to turn it on as well as the top teams, the faster teams.

"At the point where we knew I couldn’t do anything special it was turned more into a team game and I had to try and help Carlos and the team try and get a better result rather than just focusing on my own race."

While putting in an extra effort to keep his rivals at bay, Norris also had to look after his own interests.

"It wasn’t like they literally sacrificed me, I still had to do a good race and still had a chance of the top 10 if anything happened, but overall we didn’t really have the pace to do much better.

"I’m a little bit annoyed that one or two mistakes have cost me maybe one or two points but nothing more.

"Altogether I think as a team we maximised what we could do."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter