F1 Throwback: When Lando Norris stole Fernando Alonso's thunder at Daytona

Even before Lando Norris had made his mark in F1, he had stolen Fernando Alonso's thunder in a racing event.

The year was 2018, and the event was the Daytona 24 Hours. In one of the many racing adventures outside F1 that Alonso was enjoying, Daytona was one of them. The race was a step taken by the Spaniard to prepare himself for the upcoming experiment in Sportscars he was planning to do.

It was during one of these events at Daytona that Alonso had Norris as his teammate. The two drivers were going to do different stints during the 24-hour race. Alonso, the major attraction at the time as a former F1 champion, was largely outshone by young the young Norris (18 years at the time).

In the 24-hour race, Norris bettered the time put together by Alonso. Moreover, he did that in rainy conditions at night. It was this stint that made everyone take notice, including Alonso. Talking about Norris' stint in that race, Alonso said,

“For the people that don’t know Lando, it will be a surprise for them. The stints he did were very impressive. The work, the preparation, the focus. I think at night, you will check when we switched to wet tyres that was only one stint; we were fifth, one minute behind the leader, and then we switched to slick tyres in damp conditions, Lando driving, and we were 27 seconds behind the leaders."

He added:

“Even in wet conditions, first time in a prototype car, first time at Daytona, first time on the Continental tyres, he recovered 33 seconds in 20 laps. He is 18 years old. That’s quite impressive.”

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"I had a lot of fun" - Lando Norris

Norris was happy to get a weekend like that under his belt. Norris, just 18 at the time, impressed everyone and reflecting on the race, he said he had a lot of fun doing everything. He said:

“Every time I went out on track I had a lot of fun – that was the whole idea of doing it. It’s more of a team game from what I’m used to – you want to do good for everyone. The team worked really hard since the Roar to improve the car."

He continued:

"We struggled because it seems the car and this track don’t get along. But we all kept pushing, and our race pace was pretty impressive. We were sometimes the fastest car on track but mainly in the top five. We could have possibly won. …”

Five years down the line, Norris has established himself as one of the frontline drivers on the grid. Quite astoundingly, Alonso is still a part of the sport and performing at an elite level.