Get e-mail updates on everything Glastonbury Festival related Sign up NOW! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Lando Norris missed out on becoming the new FIA European Formula 3 champion yesterday by the slimmest of margins.

Glastonbury racer Norris was set to claim the title at the Red Bull Ring in Austria before he was eliminated in a final lap collision with Estonian Ralf Aron.

Norris’ retirement promoted title rival Maximillian Gunther to fifth place and gave the German driver enough points to take the championship down to the final round at Hockenheim.

With Norris 72 points ahead of Gunther in the standings, and just 75 points on offer at the championship decider, it would take an extraordinary sequence of events for the 17-year-old not to win the championship.

Norris is tipped to graduate to F2 with frontrunning team Prema next season and, as part of McLaren’s young driver programme, is being talked about as a future Formula One driver.

(Image: Twitter (@Mauro_Serafin))

But although disappointed at losing out in Austria, Norris poked fun at his own misfortune after he became the subject of an internet meme in the aftermath of the race.

Television cameras spotted Norris sitting down in a gravel trap lamenting his fate, with the pictures giving racing fans the opportunity to Photoshop him into several comical situations.

Pictures of Norris in a park and a sandpit have been posted on Twitter, with the hashtag #PlacesLandoWouldRatherBe.

The youngster has been superimposed onto a beach alongside double F1 world champion Fernando Alonso, who himself became the centre of a meme when he took refuge in a deckchair after stopping on track during the Brazilian Grand Prix two years ago.

Norris has taken the pictures in good humour and has linked to them in his own Twitter page, garnering more than 200 retweets and almost 800 likes in the process.

Hopefully, in three weeks’ time, Norris will also be laughing with the European crown.