Norris says his performance was ‘just not good enough’ · F1 · RaceFans

Lando Norris described his performance in the Italian Grand Prix as “pretty crappy” after he fell from pole position to finish third.

The pole winner was passed by team mate Oscar Piastri on the opening lap, then both McLarens were beaten by Charles Leclerc who turned an aggressive one-stop strategy into victory.

Although McLaren locked out the front row and appeared to be the fastest team yet again this weekend at Monza, Norris says that McLaren did not see themselves as being the clear favourites for the race going into Sunday.

“I think the pace was probably as expected,” Norris told the official F1 channel. “I don’t think we expected to be quicker than anyone else necessarily today.

“Maybe Ferrari were a bit better than we were expecting, for sure. But not in terms of pace but just in terms of tyre wear, they could just manage the tyres better than we could. So we knew that.

“I think we knew coming into the race we were going to struggle a bit with management of the front-left – it’s a bit of a weakness of ours at the minute. And they just seemed to do a good job. So hats off to Charles – they did a good race.”

Although Norris finished ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen to take more points out of his lead in the drivers’ standings, Norris admits he cannot take much satisfaction from the race.

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“I can’t be happy with a third, can I – starting from pole,” he said. “A pretty crappy day from my side.

“I still drove the best I could, obviously some bits weren’t good enough. I’m trying to make up for just not being good enough in other parts of the racing – trying to get fastest lap and stuff like that. One point saved, but being second or first is a lot easier to get points. So some things, clearly, to work on.”