Lando Norris insists McLaren shouldn’t be disappointed with its result at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last weekend despite rivals Renault claiming a second podium in three races.
After qualifying ninth and tenth respectively, Norris and team-mate Carlos Sainz failed to make much progress during the race at Imola, with Sainz overtaking Norris early on.
The duo benefitted from on-track retirements and took the chequered flag in seventh and eighth, with Sainz leading Norris.
McLaren scored 10 points to Renault’s 15 amid the battle for third in the Constructors’ Championship, while Racing Point took home eight points courtesy of Sergio Perez.
“It is been a difficult few weeks for us,” Norris said. “We’ve come to a race where they [Renault and Racing Point] have done a slightly better job.
“The last few weekends we also could’ve done a better job compared to them. I don’t think we should be disappointed.
“We still have a lot of pace, we just have been unlucky and need to make sure it goes our way a bit more often in the next few races.”
Norris added that McLaren couldn’t challenge for a better result due to the “simple” fact that the track layout made it difficult to overtake.
“Everyone just stayed in the same positions really,” Norris commented. “The only time the change was when someone was in a different strategy and got lucky with the safety car or something.
“It was the same for everyone. We just stayed where we were, we could not overtake. We did not have enough pace to go forwards.
“It was too difficult to do anything with strategy. A tricky race because we could not overtake but we did what we could to maximize what we could.”
Renault currently sits third in the Constructor standings, one point ahead of both McLaren and Racing Point, who are fourth and fifth respectively.
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