2025 world champion mystified by McLaren's lack of pace.

Those back-to-back victories in Hungary and Holland seem a lifetime ago, for McLaren, having appeared to be on the brink of a revival, are clearly at sixes and sevens.

Both drivers are struggling with cars they are clearly unhappy with, as the Woking outfit, champions for the last two seasons, slips to fourth in the standings.

Bravely hanging on to second on a set of hards that were well past their sell-by, Norris was told in the closing stages that he would lose positions to a number of drivers if he stayed out but that if he pitted it would be even worse.

He opted to stay out and subsequently fell victim to Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.

"We know exactly what we've got, but we've just got to improve it," he told reporters post-race, "at the minute, we've certainly made some improvements but it's nothing at the level it needs to be.

"I think we achieved the best we could," he added. "It was clear we didn't have the pace of the others, but we gave it a good try.

"The pace was good on the hards for a bit," he continued, "we struggled a lot more on the mediums, but we gave ourselves a chance which was the main thing. We had a good strategy and through everything, we gave ourselves the most opportunities so I'm happy, but we're just not quick enough."

Nonetheless the Briton believes that the upgrades the team is still bringing are working.

"I'm just hoping you put something on and it's magical and you go a lot quicker and you're fighting for a podium all of a sudden," he said. "Things are all working as they should, but you know, all the teams... Ferrari brought upgrades and all the teams are still bringing upgrades.

"They're delivering," he insisted. "Just not, I guess, just not really in all the places that we need them to, like the slow speed corners, we're just nowhere near at the level we need to be. We need a lot more rear and slow speed. It's been our issue for a long time now. It seems to be very hard to tackle."

Asked if McLaren is now the fourth quickest car, he replied: "I think it's pretty obvious!

"We were not there on pace or anything," he continued, "so we had to give it a shot and if there's any VSC or safety car, we were right in contention for a good podium. Even a P2 for a lot of it.

"I feel like it was a good race today. I feel like the pace was strong. I feel like I got everything out of it, so I have to be happy even though a P5 doesn't sound amazing."

"It was very tough for sure," added teammate Oscar Piastri. "We were able to keep Russell behind at least which was good but it was pretty challenging to get lap time out of the car which has been the same all weekend.

"I think, as a team, we've both struggled to a pretty big extent, but for me, the pace has been pretty bad so there's plenty to understand and see where we can do better."

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