‘Nothing went our way’ says Norris as McLaren leave Canada empty-handed

McLaren didn’t have the easiest of weekends in Canada, with neither Lando Norris nor team mate Daniel Ricciardo taking points – ending a three-race scoring streak for the team in orange…

Norris qualified a disappointing 14th after reporting a power unit issue during the red flag in Q2. The Briton, who took points in the last three races, couldn’t keep his run going with P15 in Canada, losing time in the first double-stack pit stop and again with a five-second pit lane speeding penalty. Crucially, Norris couldn't make up time in the Virtual or regular Safety Car periods.

“We got had over a few times with the Safety Cars and stuff and basically nothing went our way today or yesterday or whatever – so on to the next one,” said a dejected Norris.

“We didn’t have the package, the car, the straight-line speed. It’s always tough from 14th, struggling around with some cars [that] honestly, we shouldn’t be racing against, but at the same time we have to make the most of it and one of the biggest factors was that we just couldn’t overtake, simple as that, and therefore I’m just behind slower cars and you just can’t do anything from then on.

“Tough day, not a lot to smile about, but a lot of work to do.”

Team mate Ricciardo didn’t fare much better, the Australian qualifying ninth in tough conditions on Saturday, but finishing 11th after he too couldn’t capitalise on the caution periods.

“We were just not really quicker [than our rivals] today. We were just struggling for pace, and we had to manage a few issues as well. Not being able to push and attack put us out of the battle for points,” he said.

“Simply, not a fast-paced race for us. Temperature stuff, just managing that. Pushing 100%, we could probably just hang on to the top 10, but once we started to manage temperatures and things like this, it put us out of the fight.

“I would love to have had a better race, but we simply weren’t quick enough.”

Despite failing to score in Canada, McLaren head to their home race fourth in the standings, eight points ahead of rivals Alpine.