McLAREN secured their first double-points finish of the 2022 Formula 1 season yesterday at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
Glastonbury’s Lando Norris finished in fifth to claim his best result of the season so far, while his teammate Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line in sixth at his home event to collect his first points of 2022.
Norris, 22, now sits in eighth in the world championship with 16 points.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc extended his lead at the top of the championship by winning his second Grand Prix of the season and claiming his first-ever Grand Slam.
After qualifying in fourth, Norris dropped back to sixth behind Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell before the opening corner.
His former teammate Carlos Sainz, now in his second season at Ferrari, retired from the race in lap two, boosting Norris to fifth before the first round of pit stops.
Norris later passed Haas driver Kevin Magnussen before reigning world champion Max Verstappen was forced to retire from his second race of the season due to a mechanical problem.
The British McLaren driver finished behind Leclerc, Sergio Pérez, Russell, and Hamilton.
After the race, Norris told McLaren’s official website: “We didn’t have the best of first laps, but I think by the end we were still in good positions for us as a team, and we couldn’t have done a lot more.
“I think Mercedes had much better pace than us today, so we’re happy with where we ended up.
“Good points for us, a great pit-stop and good progress from the team.
“We’ll take what we’ve learned today and try to carry it with us into the next few races.”
Finished 5th. I like Australia. pic.twitter.com/DiamK4AzUq
— Lando Norris (@LandoNorris) April 10, 2022
However, Norris believes McLaren's improvement from the two opening races of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were mainly due to the track rather than performance upgrades.
He told The Race the team's improvement in Melbourne was around 80 per cent "just track" and 20 per cent "hard work".
The weekend’s event was the first Australian Grand Prix to be held since 2019 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Aussie eight-time race winner Ricciardo, 32, said: “It has been a better weekend which is positive for the team.
“I’m happy to walk away with my first points of the year at home, which is also nice for the all the fans who came out here, so I’m feeling pretty content.
“We leave Melbourne in good spirits, which feels nice as it’s probably been four years since I left here in good spirits.”
McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl praised his two drivers for “extracting everything” out of their cars.
“This is a great result for the team,” said Seidl.
“Melbourne was, as always, a great place to come racing.
“Having Daniel on board meant we had an even bigger crowd cheering us on this weekend and it was a real pleasure to give them something to celebrate.”
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