Norris had 'fun' battling Hamilton on opening lap

McLaren's Lando Norris says he found it fun to be able to pressure Lewis Hamilton for third position on the opening lap of Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris made a strong start from fifth to come wheel to wheel with the five-time champion twice on the opening lap on the way to finish sixth in the race.

"I battled him for two straights, but yeah it was quite fun to be honest," Lando said after the race. "It was nice to be able to battle the faster guys. Obviously, I didn't have the pace for the fast cars but I did what I could. I was into third at one point which was nice."

Norris was happy that he took the risk in racing Hamilton on the opening lap despite not having the pace to keep up with Mercedes driver, and insisted that Hamilton did not go easy on him.

"He was squeezing me and it was tough and he didn't make my life easy that's for sure," Norris commented. "We were side by side down the whole straight to turn three and down the whole straight to turn four.

"It would have been risky to stay on the outside of turn four but I did all I could. It was nice for once to have a good start and a good opening corner, and having the battles was good fun."

Norris pleased with Spielberg performance

Apart from his early battles, Norris was happy with his overall performance and pace of the car throughout the race.

"It was nice to score points after the last two races after none in Canada and Paul Ricard. It wasn't easy, obviously I had a good start but I still dropped behind the Alfa, but I managed to get past him.

"They put me on softs in the middle of the race after the pit stops, which was obviously the riskier tyre in terms of making it to the end. I had to manage the tyres quite a bit. I had the pace in the car to push if I had to but I'm happy with what I did and got some good points for the team"