The McLaren F1 Team secured a comfortable double points finish at the French Grand Prix; however, the British team slipped to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Lando Norris was again the team’s top performer, and managed to claim a seventh-place finish at the Circuit Paul Ricard.
The Brit, who started P5, slipped behind George Russell at the start and “struggled” with pure pace throughout Sunday afternoon.
Norris was also overtaken by Alpine’s Fernando Alonso, with the French outfit having a slightly stronger pace than the Woking-based side.
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“Pure pace” wasn’t the only thing Norris struggled with; he revealed after the race that he suffered from tyre degradation too.
Despite all the struggles, though, the 22-year-old believes the result was “not a surprise”.
“Tough day but I think it was what we expected,” said Norris.
“It was a long race and we struggled a little bit with the degradation of the tyre but also just with the pure pace.
“We weren’t as quick as we needed to be, so yeah, just tough but I won’t say disappointed. It’s sort of what we were expecting, so not a surprise.
“We’ll keep pushing, keep trying to improve, and we’ll go again next weekend. Thanks again to all the team here and at the factory for their efforts.”
On the other side of the McLaren garage, Daniel Ricciardo managed to seal a double points finish for the team, after finishing in ninth-place.
The Australian looked good early in the race, but like his team-mate he struggled to maintain the pace he had in the opening stages of the Grand Prix.
Ricciardo was able to fight with both Alpine’s and his team-mate during the race’s early stages, before falling away from the group.
The team’s new upgrades have clearly benefited Ricciardo, who as well as scoring some points came incredibly close to a Q3 appearance.
Overall, Ricciardo thinks the weekend was successful; however, he admitted that he isn’t “happy” with the car’s performance.
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“It’s points so that’s a positive,” began Ricciardo.
“It’s only ninth but still important. I had a bit of pace early in the stint and tried to get more out of it, but then it fell away a little too quickly so I definitely struggled from mid-stint onwards and didn’t have the pace to run with the Alpines and Lando.
“I felt like I did the best that I could – but it’s not enough to make me happy. Thanks again to everyone for the hard work in getting the upgrades to track this weekend and we’ll push to get more out of them over the next few races. Double-points but we’ll keep working.”