Lando Norris rubbishes stunning Lewis Hamilton Mercedes claim

Lando Norris has rubbished Lewis Hamilton's claims that Mercedes is running a "party mode" in its F1 power unit.

Following a third-place finish in the Sprint race on Saturday morning, Hamilton claimed that his former team were once again using a "party mode" in qualifying to extract performance, one which his current Ferrari outfit does not have. 

In grand prix qualifying, Hamilton claimed third place on the grid, and was 0.351s down on pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli, but 0.193s and three places ahead of Norris, who is armed with the similar Mercedes HPP power unit of Antonelli and George Russell, who scored second on the grid.

Reacting to qualifying, where his McLaren team was firmly third fastest, Norris detailed the differences between the three cars, and why he did not believe in Hamilton's claims of a "party mode" engine.

"We don't have that, so maybe he is used to his old days when they had it back then," Norris told media, including RacingNews365.

"[I don't think Mercedes has it], so sometimes, when you are a bit off, you can create things in your head.

"I wouldn't say Ferrari has much more of an advantage. They were quicker [in the Sprint] and quicker now, but we have a better power unit than Ferrari, and that is our advantage, that we have more straight-line speed.

"But [Ferrari] is still a car which drives around some of the corners quicker than a Mercedes, so to keep up with them in the corners and try to get them in the straight is difficult. Between them, [Mercedes and Ferrari] are strong in different areas; they have better tyre management and grip, and so it is easier to look after the tyres.

"That way, we have to push like hell in the corners to keep up and then catch up on the straight, so that's kind of the wrong end of the stick you want to be in on a race situation at times, but we're certainly not out of the picture in racing them, but it will be difficult. 

"Everywhere, we see that the Mercedes improved in the corners throughout qualifying, they had good deployment and on top of everything that they need to be on top of, so they're just doing a very good job, it is as simple as that."