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It was around this time last year, as the summer heat intensified, that Lando Norris’ breakthrough season in Formula 1 truly began to take off.

Two podium finishes in the first five races had represented a fine start to his third season at McLaren, but it wasn’t until F1’s double-header in Austria that Norris stopped being just another effervescent young driver and started to have the look and feel of a future World Champion.

The only driver to intrude on the Red Bull-Mercedes battle in qualifying for the first race in Spielberg, Norris returned a week later to qualify within half a tenth of pole position and, after being penalised for the crime of defending against Sergio Perez, was eventually rewarded with his third podium of 2021.

Then, later in the season, came his blistering, almost effortless pace for two-thirds of a wet qualifying session at Spa. Then came his maiden pole position, achieved in challenging conditions in Russia.

Then, yes, came the rain in Sochi, which denied him the victory his body of work across the season so deserved.

A star was born in 2021 and it is to Norris’ great credit that it has only continued to rise in what has been a more difficult second season for the McLaren-Mercedes enterprise.

His third-place finish at Imola remains the clear – perhaps only – highlight of 2022 for Norris, who after nine races has 51 fewer points than at this stage a year ago, as McLaren have struggled to hit the same heights under the