Lando Norris feels that McLaren were better than they looked in the Australian Grand Prix, with the Briton and teammate Daniel Ricciardo finishing in fifth and sixth respectively. Ahead of the event, Norris had predicted that the team would enjoy a battle with the Mercedes cars in the race. However, this fight did not quite materialise. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ended the day in P3 and P4, with Hamilton nearly 25 seconds ahead of Norris on track by the end of the Grand Prix.
Norris: Losing positions at the start was a "shame"
Norris was disappointed that the Mercedes duo were able to get ahead of himself and Ricciardo in the early stages of the race, but admits that the Silver Arrows seemed to be quicker than them throughout the 58 laps of Albert Park. "I guess [it was] a bit of a shame," Norris explained. "We lost both positions at the start just because we had a bit too much wheel spin, so we just didn't get that quite right, but that happens sometimes. "But even after [that], I think their pace was much stronger than ours anyway, so whether or not we were ahead after the first few corners and first few laps, I think they had a much stronger race car than we did today."
"A lot of positive things" to take away for McLaren
Norris feels that McLaren had a stronger day than it may have appeared from the outside, though. "I think [there were] a lot of positive things," the driver said. "I think, realistically, we were a bit better than [how] we looked. We had a couple of issues here and there, which we had to manage, so I definitely should have been a little bit higher up on track, not in terms of position, but just time. "But the main thing is we had two cars in the points. So I guess we're very happy with that as a team. [It's] good motivation for everyone, very rewarding I guess for everyone. "So we're satisfied. We're happy with that, and we just need to try and continue that next time."
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