Lando Norris reflects on McLaren progress after podium finish

It was a wild day at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix for Lando Norris. He managed to secure his second podium of the season after a tough 66-lap race, effectively shadowing the Mercedes cars for much of the afternoon. While a late retirement for Kimi Antonelli certainly helped, Norris was rightfully thrilled to be back in the top three.

Lewis Hamilton took the victory for Ferrari using a three-stop strategy, a move that proved too much for the two-stop approach of Mercedes and McLaren. Norris was honest about the gap: "It was a tough race, I did my best to keep up with these guys but they were too quick." He remains convinced that McLaren is making progress, even if they currently lack the pace to match the leaders directly.

Meanwhile, it was a difficult outing for Oscar Piastri, who finished in P5. The Australian was over 30 seconds adrift of his teammate, struggling with tyre life and overall pace. Piastri admitted that the team is currently one or two tenths off the speed of Mercedes and Ferrari, creating a cycle of degradation that is hard to break. The goal now is to turn those struggles into lessons before the cars head to Austria.