McLaren haul Norris from 'nowhere' to offer Chinese GP hope

Lando Norris claims he came from "nowhere" to offer himself hope of back-to-back grand prix victories to start the new F1 season.

Following a comprehensive performance in the season-opening race in Australia a week ago, in which Norris scored the grand chelem of pole, fastest lap, and leading every lap en route to victory, the British driver has been out of sorts with his car in China.

Norris could only manage sixth in the sprint shoot before dropping three places on the opening lap following a mistake into Turn 6. He then struggled to make any ground before grabbing a potentially vital point with a late move on Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to claim eighth position.

In qualifying, with Norris confirming changes were made to the car, he secured third on the grid, finishing 0.153s behind team-mate Oscar Piastri, with Mercedes' George Russell splitting the duo with the final flying lap of the session.

Assessing his recovery, Norris said: "Always disappointing if I'm not on pole but Oscar deserves it because he's done a very good job all weekend, so happy for him, his first pole in Formula 1, so it's always cool.

"Just a couple of mistakes again. That's been the case this weekend but the car was feeling a bit better today, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with the car.

"So a step in the right direction, especially from yesterday when I was struggling a whole lot, and even this morning [in the sprint] I was struggling a whole lot. 

"A much better direction we're going so not too disappointed."

Norris again reiterated the car is tricky to drive this weekend, adding: "I've said that plenty of times. It is. It's still quick enough, we've never doubted it's the quickest car. It can just be a little feisty at times.

"Today is not so much that. Today was just mistakes from my side, and that's all."

As to why the turnaround in performance from the sprint to qualifying, he replied: "We changed quite a lot on the car because we were nowhere. We worked quite hard to make some improvements into quali, and hopefully for the race."