“Bye bye, sucker”: Lando Norris explains wave at Ricciardo after lapping him in Monaco

McLaren driver Lando Norris has cleared the air that his wave to Daniel Ricciardo while lapping him was nothing more than a ‘thank you’.

Norris is well known in Formula 1 to wave to his fellow drivers as he passes them. While most do not bother with it, some might want to see that as an act of arrogance.

Norris was seen giving his teammate Ricciardo a wave as he lapped him.

The media wants answers

Channel 4 presenter Steve Jones asked Norris if his wave meant “bye, bye sucker”.

The Brit however said, “That was a ‘cheers’.

“I don’t think it really matters. In Monaco, you just get stuck behind everyone and gaps get created so I don’t think anyone needs to talk about that.

“Daniel doesn’t need any shame or anything [being lapped]. It was just a blue flag and it’s easy to get here in Monaco because you just get stuck behind cars.

“So it doesn’t matter. I think Daniel had good pace in the race. When I got ahead of him I didn’t really pull away.”

Norris breaks ice on teammate’s struggles

Norris also offered his opinions on his teammate’s struggles with the MCL35M while he has no problems with it.

“He’s just been struggling with the confidence with the car, which I felt good with this weekend. But when you just don’t have that, with these types of cars, you lack speed and lack confidence to really push on the car.

“It’s tricky but like we saw in Barcelona, when the car is good [for him] he’s there.

“But when it’s not, he struggles. It’s up to him.”

With Norris scoring his second podium, he currently stands at P3 in the driver’s championship just behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Ricciardo, on the other hand, is at P8 and 32 points behind his teammate.

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