Being British number one is my goal – McLaren’s Lando Norris

Norris heads into his home race fresh from an impressive victory over Oscar Piastri which puts him 15 points behind his McLaren team-mate ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix.

The 25-year-old will have his own grandstand at Silverstone, hosting 10,000 of his fans, while he is also the leading Briton in the championship, two places ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

Hamilton is sixth in the standings, 110 points behind Norris and without a podium in his debut Ferrari campaign. However, the seven-time world champion has won a record nine times at Silverstone.

“From a British perspective, I have the best chance of winning the race and of course I am the one that is most likely to be fighting for the championship this season,” said Norris.

“Am I the British number one? I don’t know. I don’t know how much you have to take into account history. If you do, then Lewis is quite convincingly at the top – he has a lot more wins, poles and championships than anyone else put together.

“Being the British number one would be nice, that’s my goal, the same as it is with any sportsman, whether it is in tennis or golf, you want to be the number one, but I would say I haven’t proven myself to be there yet. But it is something I am working on.”

Norris bounced back from the horror of crashing into Piastri in Canada by securing a dominant pole position in Spielberg and then holding off Piastri to claim his third win of the season.

After winning the season opener in Melbourne, Norris claimed his second win of the year in Monaco.

But when asked if winning his home race for the first time would be the crowning moment of his career, Norris replied: “Yes. It is tough to put something above Monaco but if I could swap all my race wins for one, it would be for a win here, so that is the plan.

“Winning at Monaco and Silverstone is different. Monaco has the history, and it means so much to win there, but Silverstone is my home race and the one that puts the bigger smile on my face. And since a kid watching Formula One, it is the one I have wanted to win the most.”

Norris will be keen to carry over his championship momentum from Spielberg to Silverstone. However, he has never won back-to-back races in F1.

He added: “I definitely felt more back on track in Austria but is not a guarantee I will have that here because it can be track specific.

“In Austria, I felt better and back in the rhythm. My lap in qualifying was one of the best I have ever done, so, yes, the old me was back.

“But I need that consistency and I need to prove that to myself. The win gives you more motivation and you want to feel as though you can use your home race as an advantage and I hope that is the case this weekend.”