Lando Norris admitted he made too many mistakes in the Bahrain Grand Prix despite climbing three places to finish third.
The McLaren driver served a five-second time penalty for lining up incorrectly at the start of the race. He also struggled to make progress at times and was told to let Lewis Hamilton overtake him at one stage after passing him outside of the track limits.
Norris immediately moved up to third place at the start but it emerged soon afterwards his car was not in the correct position when the race began.
“I didn’t think I was that far forward, I guess,” he said afterwards. “Nothing more than that.”
After serving his five-second time penalty, Norris spent much of the rest of the race trying to make up positions on-track. He came close to passing Leclerc after the Safety Car restart, but fell behind Hamilton’s Ferrari, giving him more work to do.
“It was a tough race, of course,” he said. “I made too many mistakes with the overtakes, the out-of-position. It was a messy race for me and disappointing not to bring home a one-two for McLaren because that would have been lovely at home. So a tough one but still a few positives.”
Norris fought both Ferrari drivers and Russell at different stages. He accused Charles Leclerc of forcing him off the track at one stage but the stewards took no action.
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However after the race Norris said he had no concerns over their tactics. “It was good racing throughout, so no complaints, just good fun,” he said. “Good overtakes, everyone hard and on the limit as it should be, so a good one.”
While Oscar Piastri scored McLaren’s third victory of the season in the race, Norris finished seven-tenths of a second behind Russell. “He did a good job,” Norris admitted. “I thought I would be able to get him.
“I guess he was probably just saving a little bit for the end, which he did well. So he did a good job, Oscar did a good job so congrats to Oscar and the whole McLaren team and I’ll try to step it up for next weekend.”
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