Lando Norris has explained why he sent a frustrated message to McLaren after crossing the line in third place at the British Grand Prix sprint race.

Norris made a fantastic start to the Silverstone sprint race, and found himself embroiled in a battle for second place in the opening laps. Fighting with eventual race-winner Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and Charles Leclerc, the Briton was eventually able to break free of the skirmish and disappear into the distance, but only after Antonelli had achieved the same feat. 

However, he later received an instruction to save fuel in the closing laps, leaving him vulnerable to a hard-charging Russell. 

Although Norris was able to narrowly hold on to his position, on the cooldown lap, he said via team radio: “Good job, just f*ck me, guys, let’s get it right for once, please!”

Race engineer Will Joseph replied: “It’s good data to get it right tomorrow.”

Explaining the message, Norris told media, including Crash.net, “[It’s] just a few things. I don’t need to get into it, but just some [things] we should be doing a better job on. 

“It’s just quite simple stuff that limits our performance and our potential to get podiums and points when we need to. So it’s just some things that we need to better as a team.”

McLaren is the only Mercedes-powered team still using the old specification power unit, this coming as a result of the team’s failure to start with either car in China.

Asked where his McLaren has ‘pleasantly surprised’ him, Norris responded bluntly: “Nowhere. 

“I just had a good start and a good lap one. So it wasn’t like I fought my way through after that, so I hung on well from that point onwards. My start was just very, very good off the line and I got two or three cars pretty much immediately, so that made my life much easier from that point onwards. 

“I was fighting the car everywhere, to be honest, so it wasn’t a straightforward race, and I knew George would be catching like he did, especially at the end of the race. 

“It was good fun. I was pleasantly surprised to be here today. But a good race, and good fighting – especially the first few laps with the Red Bull and Mercedes. You always have to judge and learn where their deployment works, where they’re fast and slow and how to counter them in these areas. But after then, I could counter that and pull away.”

Lando Norris has explained why he sent a frustrated message to McLaren after crossing the line in third place at the British Grand Prix sprint race.

Norris made a fantastic start to the Silverstone sprint race, and found himself embroiled in a battle for second place in the opening laps. Fighting with eventual race-winner Kimi Antonelli, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, and Charles Leclerc, the Briton was eventually able to break free of the skirmish and disappear into the distance, but only after Antonelli had achieved the same feat. 

However, he later received an instruction to save fuel in the closing laps, leaving him vulnerable to a hard-charging Russell. 

Although Norris was able to narrowly hold on to his position, on the cooldown lap, he said via team radio: “Good job, just f*ck me, guys, let’s get it right for once, please!”

Race engineer Will Joseph replied: “It’s good data to get it right tomorrow.”

Explaining the message, Norris told media, including Crash.net, “[It’s] just a few things. I don’t need to get into it, but just some [things] we should be doing a better job on. 

“It’s just quite simple stuff that limits our performance and our potential to get podiums and points when we need to. So it’s just some things that we need to better as a team.”

McLaren is the only Mercedes-powered team still using the old specification power unit, this coming as a result of the team’s failure to start with either car in China.

Asked where his McLaren has ‘pleasantly surprised’ him, Norris responded bluntly: “Nowhere. 

“I just had a good start and a good lap one. So it wasn’t like I fought my way through after that, so I hung on well from that point onwards. My start was just very, very good off the line and I got two or three cars pretty much immediately, so that made my life much easier from that point onwards. 

“I was fighting the car everywhere, to be honest, so it wasn’t a straightforward race, and I knew George would be catching like he did, especially at the end of the race. 

“It was good fun. I was pleasantly surprised to be here today. But a good race, and good fighting – especially the first few laps with the Red Bull and Mercedes. You always have to judge and learn where their deployment works, where they’re fast and slow and how to counter them in these areas. But after then, I could counter that and pull away.”