Lando Norris is enjoying the best run of form he’s had throughout his racing career.
The McLaren driver sits fourth in the Formula 1 world championship after 11 races with three podium finishes thus far.
He was one of the standout performers in the first half of the season, comprehensively outperforming his highly rated team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
It’s left the Englishman to describe his current purple patch as the best spell of his career to date.
“I would say this has probably been my best by quite a long way,” he said of his current run of form.
“Mainly just from the consistency side of it, there’s only really Barcelona which was an off weekend for me, the rest of them have been pretty good and I don’t think I’ve had that in probably any other series.”
Norris stormed onto the podium at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix a day after a track limits transgression cost him a third-place grid position.
He was also on the podium at Monaco, and started alongside Max Verstappen on the front row at the Austrian Grand Prix, where he picked up another podium.
Until the Hungarian GP immediately prior to the summer break, Norris has scored in every race of the season, the only driver to have done so.
Aside from Hungary, and the aforementioned Spanish Grand Prix, his worst finish all season has been fifth.
“My best one before this was Formula 4 or Formula Renault,” Norris said of his next-best season after the 2021 campaign.
“Probably more Formula 4, just in my consistency in the qualifying side of it – I didn’t qualify outside of the top two all season, but that’s only qualifying.
“This year, what’s been good, is both my qualifying consistency and, more importantly, the race consistency.
“So yeah, definitely my best spell I’ve had in my career.”
Norris ended last year’s campaign ninth in the standings with 97 points from 17 races, a tally he’s already well surpassed (113 and counting) with another 10 events still scheduled for 2021.
Formula 1 returns next weekend with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, opening practice for which commences at 19:30 AEST on the Friday.
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