McLaren boss lauds Norris after recovery with Alonso-Valencia 2012 comparison

Norris was knocked out in Q1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after making a mistake on his final lap.

This was compounded by an untimely yellow flag which meant he couldn’t improve.

In the race, Norris found himself as low as 14th following the mid-race red flag but drove beautifully to finish fifth, with some daring overtakes on Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell.

Speaking after the race in Mexico, Stella heaped praise on Norris, declaring his drive as one of the “best” he’s ever seen.

“Well in fairness we were having exactly this conversation on the pit wall as his race engineer Will Joseph turned to me and said to me that’s one of the best of Lando. I said, ‘Will, that’s one of the best at all’.

“Overtaking, so many overtakings, in Mexico, where yesterday if you read the quotes everyone is saying it’s so difficult to overtake, while managing PU temperatures, having to do lift and coast. I’m just impressed. One of the best races for a driver that I’ve been part of, let’s say.

“Yeah, this race made me think of Valencia 2012, where at the time we started 12th, we won the race.

“But this one… you know, on one side we are excited, having seen this kind of masterpiece, on the other side like Lando said on the in-lap, like, guys let’s do a good job on Saturday and we can fight for podiums, so you know the pace was there to fight for podiums.”