Lando Norris says his second place on the Chinese language Grand Prix got here as such a shock as a result of he anticipated to be “nowhere close to prime three” based mostly on the Dash.
McLaren struggled for race tempo in comparison with Purple Bull and Ferrari within the Dash, with Norris shedding the lead at first of the race and slipping to seventh, ultimately ending sixth. Because of this he thought fifth place was McLaren’s seemingly greatest end from his beginning place of fourth behind the Purple Bulls and Fernando Alonso, however he cleared the Aston Martin early on after which used technique to beat Sergio Perez to second.
“A giant enchancment immediately in comparison with yesterday,” Norris mentioned. “So I believe that’s why we have been most likely a bit stunned. I’m stunned to be sitting right here immediately, however it’s a pleasant shock in fact. Tough to say, we’ve been struggling a little bit bit — I’m positive everybody does — with sure issues all through the entire season, which have all the time been limiting us.
“It most likely felt similar-ish to Australia. Australia, I felt comfy and the automobile felt fairly good as properly. So simply significantly better immediately, issues got here alive immediately, the circumstances cooled down, the wind calmed down and each of this stuff, I believe, performed into our fingers a little bit bit extra.
“That’s why yesterday, should you requested me, ‘What will we anticipate for immediately?’ it undoubtedly was nowhere close to prime three, and even perhaps prime 5. So, a pleasing shock. The automobile felt significantly better, however clearly, not fast sufficient to match the Purple Bulls.”
Norris insists there was no downplaying of expectations at McLaren, with the automobile simply performing higher in sure areas and the race enjoying out extra easily than within the Dash.
“We have been simply faster than we thought,” he mentioned. “The restrictions, the locations we anticipated to wrestle, most likely much more, we didn’t wrestle as a lot in. So these longer corners, like Flip 1, have all the time been an enormous weak spot for us. A part of Flip 1 was most likely higher than we’re anticipating and the second half was most likely as we have been anticipating.
“So it’s simply we’re nonetheless studying concerning the automobile. It’s so simple as that. This observe may be very completely different. The tarmac is sort of odd. Possibly that performed into our fingers a bit greater than we have been considering, perhaps with the previous tarmac, we might have struggled a bit extra. So simply little issues. We’re not making it up. We’re giving our sincere opinion on the place we need to be.
“I believe if we have been to enter a weekend, and we knew we’re going to be sturdy, we’ve mentioned it. So as a rule, we don’t really feel that optimistic, as a result of all yr we’ve been behind Purple Bull, all yr we’ve been behind Ferrari, there’s no motive for us to all of a sudden assume we ought to be forward.
“Nothing actually pointed to us having an incredible race immediately, particularly the Dash race yesterday, which was our greatest sort of model of occasions of what can go down. However issues simply went to plan and sort of went very easily from that time onwards.
“I didn’t make a mistake in Flip 1 and go off, that’s a very good begin! Obtained previous the Aston after which you possibly can simply management the race. And that was very completely different to yesterday.”
