Norris impressed with early McLaren race pace

Lando Norris has made a strong start to his Formula 1 career and now the McLaren driver has praised his employers speed during the opening two races of the season.

Despite Carlos Sainz failing to complete either race in Australia and Bahrain, Norris finished sixth in the latter as well as making it to Q3 at Albert Park. Having come second in Formula 2 in 2018 the rookie has started well in F1 but believes it is down to the speed of his new team.

Having been plagued by reliability and power issues in recent years early signs suggest McLaren have turned a corner and Norris admitted even that took him by surprise.

“Between qualifying and the race it was one of the best weekends made by McLaren for a long time,” said Norris.

“There is still a lot of work to do to stay constantly in the mid-table fight, but our race pace seems to be better than we imagined.

"We thought we had better performances in qualifying than those seen to date.

“I am happy with my first two races, although in Australia I could have achieved a better finish,” added the Brit.