Norris feels ‘lucky’ to race in era defined by Lewis Hamilton before French GP

Lewis Hamilton has defined an era in Formula One that will be recognised alongside those of other great drivers, the McLaren driver Lando Norris believes. The seven-times champion reaches his 300th race at the French Grand Prix this weekend and Norris acknowledged his achievement, but also emphasised the importance of Hamilton’s influence across the sport and beyond.

Only five other drivers have reached 300 races and in doing so Hamilton’s career has stretched across 16 seasons since 2007, during which he has already broken a series of records. With seven titles the 36-year-old has matched Michael Schumacher’s tally but stands alone at the top of the pack with 103 poles and 103 wins.

The 22-year-old Norris is in his fourth F1 season and speaking at the Paul Ricard circuit was pleased to say he had raced during what he thought would be known as the Hamilton era, one defined by his competition with drivers such as Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

“You always hear the stories of when there was Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher and in this period it’s been Lewis,” he said. “You hear about the battles he has had, and those guys had with [Alain] Prost and [Nigel] Mansell. In 20 or 30 years time its going to be the same about Lewis racing Seb and Max. Then somewhere there’s my name a bit further down … You take it for granted initially because you are doing your own thing but in 30 years’ time that’s when you realise you were in a way lucky to be racing in that time.”

Norris, who has shown no fear in battling Hamilton on track, has earned his respect. He praised the youngster when he led the Russian GP last year only to lose out as the rain intervened and Hamilton went on to take his 100th win. He also described him as a