PAY AND DISPLAY

Lando's super second hits him in pocket

- DANIEL MOXON

LANDO NORRIS was so sure the Shanghai podium was out of reach that he bet against himself.

And now the Briton owes his McLaren race engineer some cash after his latest superb drive.

Max Verstappen won but Norris was the star of this show, Fl's first Chinese Grand Prix since 2019.

He got lucky with the timing of a safety car which propelled him up to second, but showed great pace to hold off the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez.

And he was more than 10 seconds clear of both Ferraris, which surprisingly struggled for pace.

Norris said he was stunned by how slow Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were.

"I made a bet on how far behind Ferrari we would finish - I thought 35 seconds, I was very wrong!" he said. "A good day for everyone."