Lando Norris believes McLaren’s strong driver pairing can be a big advantage as the team celebrated an “important milestone” with a double podium at the Japanese Grand Prix. British driver Norris finished second for a second consecutive race, albeit well behind dominant race-winner Max Verstappen, while team-mate Oscar Piastri secured his first podium in his debut Formula One season. After a tough start to the year, McLaren have impressed since their first big upgrade began at July’s Austrian Grand Prix. Norris finished fourth at Spielberg before picking up back-to-back second-places at Silverstone and in Hungary. Piastri, 22, has exceeded expectations this season, with a number of strong displays earning the Australian an extended contract earlier this week – none more so than at Suzuka given he had never even been to Japan before. Norris feels their combined strength is a major plus for McLaren as they chase down Aston Martin in the constructors’ championship. “I think our advantage at the minute comparing to almost every team, bar a couple, is we have two drivers who are up there fighting for these positions and fighting for these points,” Norris said after the race at Suzuka. “And not every team has that at the minute. So I think that’s helping us. We can help one another, we can use one another, and I think that’s a good advantage we have over a lot of other teams at the minute. “So we’re on an upward trend. We’re making good progress and days like today prove exactly that. “The progress we’ve made this season has been pretty incredible from my eyes, and from where we were to finishing 19 seconds behind the lead is, I think, evidence of exactly that. “So I’m proud of everyone and we’ll keep pushing.” Team principal Andrea Stella described the result at Suzuka as “an important milestone in our journey at McLaren”, while Piastri celebrated a significant day. “You never forget your first podium, regardless of whether it’s been a strong performance or not,” he said. “So yeah, it will be a special day and I won’t forget it and also ticking the first podium off the list is always a nice achievement to have.” There are six races remaining in the 2023 season, including three sprint weekends, with a trip to Qatar next on the agenda in two weeks’ time. McLaren have closed to 49 points of Aston Martin in the standings and CEO Zak Brown is confident they have a well-rounded car to be strong for the rest of the campaign. “The team is just doing such a fantastic job, executing week in, week out,” Brown told Sky Sports F1. “We are trying to catch Red Bull. All we can do is chip a tenth at a time but Max was pretty dominant. I think we will be strong at the next race, so will keep pushing. “I feel as confident as I can we will be pretty strong everywhere, but we know there will be some tracks that favour your car more than others and we are good in the high speed, which Qatar is, so we will be strong there and not be weak anywhere.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen pips Oscar Piastri to pole after tense qualifying for Japanese GP Lando Norris narrows gap on Max Verstappen at final practice in Japan Max Verstappen returns to form in Japanese Grand Prix practice

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Elon Musk has attracted the ire of film fans everywhere after making a Blade Runner reference that backfired on him. The Tesla billionaire and owner of Twitter/X made a passing comment about the seminal 80s sci-fi classic directed by Ridley Scott, which was quickly pounced upon by cinephiles on social media. Musk was responding to a clip of Joe Rogan shooting the highly-anticipated Tesla Cybertruck with a bow and arrow – which is one of the stranger moments from Musk’s recent appearance on his podcast this week. Speaking about the vehicle – which Tesla fans have been waiting years for, and is finally being sent out to customers “next month” according to Musk – Musk made reference to the film. “It’s an armored personnel carrier from the future – what Bladerunner would have driven,” he wrote, responding to footage of the moment with Rogan. Referencing a classic sci-fi movie would be no big deal, normally. However, people were quick to point out that the main character played by Harrison Ford was not, in fact, called Bladerunner. Instead, the character was called Rick Deckard – and it left some film fans convinced Musk has never seen the film or he’s misunderstood it. Writing on Twitter/X, one user responded by writing: “Just taking a moment here to appreciate that Elon Musk thinks the main character in Blade Runner is a guy called ‘Bladerunner’”. Another said: “Elon Musk thinks the protagonist from Blade Runner is called ‘Bladerunner’ and also has no f***ing idea what an Armoured Personnel Carrier is.” It comes after Musk appeared on Rogan’s podcast on Tuesday (October 31), which saw Musk kicking off by lighting a cigar and speaking to Rogan, who was wearing a blonde wig and a Puerto Rico shirt throughout the interview to mark Halloween – check out the biggest talking points from the new interview here. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

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