Lando Norris hands McLaren clear instruction after Mercedes 'surprise'

Lando Norris has urged McLaren to understand why its car performed so well at Spa-Francorchamps and so poorly at Silverstone, admitting he was "surprised" Mercedes was not further ahead.

Norris was competitive throughout the Belgian Grand Prix and qualified third, although a 10-place grid penalty for taking an engine component outside his legal allocation dropped him to 13th on the grid.

The reigning world champion showed strong race pace and recovered to seventh, setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap.

On pure performance, it was one of McLaren's best showings of the season, a stark contrast to the British Grand Prix, where the Woking-based outfit struggled.

Silverstone and Spa share many similarities, adding to Norris' confusion over why McLaren was so weak at one circuit and so strong at the other. Nevertheless, the Briton believes Mercedes is being caught.

Mercedes' race pace was, once again, not significantly better than that of the other top teams, while Kimi Antonelli was untouchable in qualifying. Mercedes' performance in the Belgian Grand Prix surprised Norris, with McLaren having closed the gap.

Asked if Mercedes' race pace not being as strong as its one-lap pace was a surprise, Norris told select media, including RacingNews365: "I mean, it's been a little bit like that all year, to be honest. 

"They've always been a little step better in qualifying compared to the race. There have been some races where they've just been completely dominant, but I wouldn't say that over the last three, four or five weekends. 

"Everyone seems to have caught up a little bit, and this is also a track where a lot of it is about the straights and straight-line mode, which is also where they have a good advantage over us. But yeah, maybe I'm a little bit surprised they weren't much stronger. 

"They still won the race, so it's not like they had a bad weekend, but we were certainly closer than we were expecting, and that's a good sign. But we don't know why. 

"If we went back to Silverstone now, we'd still be shockingly slow and struggle with the car. So we have to understand why this track suited us so much better."