Lando Norris has been encouraged by McLaren’s performance at the Qatar Grand Prix, issuing that the team was quicker than Max Verstappen at “points in the race”.
McLaren profited from the two Mercedes drivers colliding at Turn 1 to score the team’s second consecutive double podium finish, with Oscar Piastri leading Norris home.
Despite only starting sixth and 10th because of deleted times in qualifying, both McLaren cars finished within six seconds of race winner Verstappen at the end of 57 laps.
Norris admits that McLaren’s strong pace defied its expectations, adding that the team’s MCL60 car potentially outpaced the Red Bull at certain stages of the race.
“I think we knew we had great pace,” he said. So it was a bit tough to know [where we’d end up] – just what you had to do with the pit stops and things. I think it was really hard for anyone to really know how it was all going to play out.
“But we knew we had great pace, maybe not initially to fight for a win, but to get up to the front at least. And initially, I would say, to fight the Mercedes, but they did a lovely job of making our life a lot easier. So I didn’t really need to think of that and could just focus on catching the guys that we were definitely quicker than, which was the Ferrari and the Astons.
“And yeah, by the time we came through Turn 1, I felt like we could at least fight for the podium straightaway. So from Lap 1 a podium was on the cards and that was my target.
“But the pace turned out to be probably better than I was expecting, you know, for us to be, at points in the race, probably a bit quicker than Max. Maybe at some points a bit slower.
“But I think on the whole first to finish P3 was as good as it could have been today. So I’m happy for the whole team, for Oscar, for everyone at McLaren, for us to have two cars on the podium again, for a third time, is fantastic.”
Norris believes that he could have fought Verstappen for victory if he had delivered a better result in Friday’s qualifying hour.
The Briton had a brace of times good enough for the front row removed in Q3 for exceeding track limits, dropping him eight places to the rear of the top 10.
Meanwhile, Norris also squandered the opportunity to beat Piastri to the Sprint Race win, having made a mistake on his final flying run in the Shootout that sets the grid.
Asked if he feels this is the closest McLaren has got to Red Bull and Verstappen this year, Norris replied: “Yeah, probably. I don’t know how much quicker Max could have gone in qualifying.
“But I guess if I want to be honest with myself, I should have fought for two pole positions this weekend. And potentially two victories.
“I know it’s a big thing to say, but I think if things went well, if I just did a better job and didn’t make the mistakes I did over the last two days, which is why I’ve been so frustrated, because I knew what was on the cards, what we were able to potentially achieve. And that was victories, both yesterday and today.
“So I feel like it was a weekend of missed opportunities for myself to take the fight to Max and at least give ourselves that opportunity.
“There’s good things and bad things. I feel like I’ve missed out and didn’t do what I should have done and achieve what I should have achieved but I’m definitely still happy with a P3. I can’t take anything away from that. But in the back of my head, I know I should have done more this weekend.”
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