By Scott Hunt

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Lando Norris admits he wants to be seen as a “good guy” amid the tension of his battle for the world championship.

The British driver has been locked in a head-to-head tussle with McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri for the entire season, yet the pair have managed to keep their relationship civil – a rarity in Formula One.

Norris was booed by a small section of supporters on the podium at Monza last time out, after Piastri was ordered to allow his rival through following a slow pit stop.

“I mean, it’s never the nicest thing, but not something I really was bothered by,” Norris said of the boos.

“Normally the Italian fans have always been very good to me.”

Norris was jokingly asked if he was relishing a bad-boy image and also whether being liked is something that matters to him.

“It’s not bad-boy image, it’s not like I did something, it wasn’t even my decision!” Norris laughed.

“Certainly I would say I don’t like to be disliked. I want to come across as a good guy and a nice guy.

“You’re never going to be liked by everyone, so I think I’ve come more to terms with that fact.

“Yeah, certainly, I always want to give a good impression, that’s something that I care about.”

F1 is littered with examples of team-mates falling out when competing for the title, with the likes Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost and Lewis Hamilton-Nico Rosberg clashing fiercely.

“I think it takes a combination of drivers to understand and be on board with it, and it also takes a team to be well run,” Norris added on how McLaren have bucked that trend.

“For sure there are more selfish drivers out there who would disagree with it, which is completely fine for them.”

Norris arrives in Baku for this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix 31 points adrift of Piastri in the title race.

The 25-year-old took the opportunity between races to play alongside Ryder Cup star Matt Fitzpatrick in the BMW PGA Championship pro-am event at Wentworth.

Norris relished the opportunity to dive into a different sporting environment and enjoyed handling a few hecklers.

“It was good fun. I think I played well for myself considering I don’t know the course that well,” he added.

“I was a bit nervous, I didn’t have a lot of time to warm up, I had like five minutes and I could not hit my driver off the tee.

“I’m like ‘all I want is to hit the driver off the tee because that’s all anyone’s really going to see’! A lot of hecklers, just the whole day always heckling!

“Actually I found it good fun that people are like giving you a bit of chat every now and then.

“When I went to the range and you have all the pros hitting, it’s the same as I’m sure if a sports person comes to F1, it’s admiration for something like that.

“Not many people get to really try the level of an F1 car. In golf I think what’s quite cool is I can have the same clubs as this person, he’s just a lot better, which is why golf’s great.”