Norris concedes McLaren weakness reared its head at Zandvoort

Lando Norris has conceded one of McLaren's biggest weaknesses became evident during the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Briton starred during qualifying and looked to be in contention for pole position before being pipped by local favourite Max Verstappen and forced to settle for second.

But Norris was shuffled down the order when he opted to stay out for an extra lap at the start of the race as heavy rain fell, allowing those who switched to Intermediates to jump him.

There was comfort to be had in a strong comeback to seventh, but Norris was left to rue what could have been.

“There are times when it’s down to pace and times when it’s down to strategy,” he told media including RacingNews365.com.

“The strategy is what messed us up today. I don't think the pace was bad, the pace was OK. But it was not good enough.”

McLaren pace 'pretty terrible' compared to rivals

Although the McLaren looked to be second fastest in qualifying, its form dipped away during the race.

“If you want to say what was our pace like compared to Aston? It was pretty terrible,” he said.

“Comapred to Mercedes? Pretty terrible, so our pace today was a long way off the pace that we showed in qualifying.

“Our one-lap pace is a lot more competitive than our race pace.

“I think that's becoming more and more evident and we're doing whatever we can to fix it and make steps forward but at the minute is nowhere near enough.”