Palmer dazzled by 'best of the rest' Norris in 2022

Jolyon Palmer has commended Lando Norris for "another stellar season" and praised the McLaren charger for finishing "best of the rest" in the championship.

Norris concluded his fourth season in F1 seventh in the Drivers' standings, the Briton taking at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola the only podium of the year scored by a non-Red Bull, Ferrari or Mercedes driver.

"It was another stellar season for the McLaren driver, who barely put a foot wrong all campaign to finish comfortably best of the rest in the standings and almost single handedly take the fight to Alpine in the constructors’ championship, Palmer wrote for Formula1.com.

"The gap between the best and the rest was bigger than anticipated in 2022, something I hope will close up from next season to give more of the midfielders opportunities.

“But it was only Norris who managed a podium outside of the top three teams, with his drive to third in Imola."

For Palmer, Norris' stock continues to trend higher, a fact that wasn't missed by McLaren who, earlier this year, extended its young gun's contract until the end of 2025.

"Out-qualified only once by the departing Daniel Ricciardo, it seemed Norris took his performance to another level, even if the standout moments weren’t as exceptional as last year," added Palmer.

"With a long-term contract in place, he’ll be hoping for a leap in performance from his team next season. If that comes, I expect Norris to be knocking on the door of that maiden race win once again."

Read also:

• Chandhok: Red Bull 'should be going hard' to sign Norris

For all the praise bestowed upon him by Palmer, Norris himself believes that as a team McLaren "can't be satisfied" with its 2022 performance.

"Everyone's smiling now because we've had a good season for sure," Norris commented recently.

"Everyone has done a good job, the mechanics, the engineers, I think we've pretty much maximised every opportunity that we've had.

"The mechanics have done an outstanding job in the toughest year for pitstops with heavier tyres and worse guns - we had the fastest pitstop this year and multiple fast stops on race weekends.

"If I think before the season, did we achieve in 2022 what we should have done as McLaren? Honestly, no. If we want to do well and we want to be champions at some point and we want to win races, we can’t be satisfied with where we have been this season."

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