Lando Norris’ data uncovered in scary McLaren pace analysis

After a disappointing qualifying performance from Lando Norris on Saturday, his worst of the season so far, he slightly redeem himself during the Bahrain Grand Prix by finishing on the podium.

However, even Norris admitted post-race that he wasn’t entirely satisfied and felt he could have brought home more points for himself and the team. But what does the data say – could Norris have realistically finished higher?

Bahrain GP: McLaren once again proves its incredible pace

The Bahrain Grand Prix confirmed once more that McLaren currently has the fastest car on the grid. Oscar Piastri was untouchable from pole position, never allowing anyone to challenge him on track. He maintained full control throughout and firmly established himself as Norris’ main rival in the championship fight.

The race pace chart confirms it. When the MCL39 runs in clean air, it becomes virtually unstoppable. What’s particularly interesting is that McLaren now enjoy almost the same advantage over the second-fastest car (just under 0.5s) as Red Bull did on this circuit a year ago.

Norris, unlike his team-mate, didn’t have clean air in front of him, which led to a very different race.

The Briton got off to an excellent start, possibly his best race start to date, considering this was a weakness of his last season, and quickly overtook Pierre Gasly and Kimi Antonelli in the opening corners and began chasing down George Russell ahead.

But a post-start investigation revealed that Norris had committed an infringement while positioning before lights-out, earning him a five-second time penalty. To minimise the damage, McLaren called him into the pits on lap 11 in an attempt to undercut, a move that worked. He rejoined behind Fernando Alonso, overtook him without issue, and after Russell’s stop on lap 14, the gap between the two stood at 3.2 seconds.

Despite being on the same tyre compound, Norris couldn’t close the gap to Russell. Things got worse when Charles Leclerc, on fresher tyres, overtook him on lap 25. Of the three drivers, Norris had the weakest race pace during this phase of the race.

Unlike the Ferrari pair, the safety car deployment on lap 32 actually benefited Norris’s strategy as he now found himself on a new set of medium tyres, ahead of Leclerc, who was running hards.

However, new issues emerged after the restart. Norris had a poor getaway and had to give up position to Lewis Hamilton after an illegal overtake off-track. Though he reclaimed the place a lap later, the time lost battling Hamilton proved costly in the fight for the front.

By lap 46, the Brit had closed in on Leclerc and prepared for a move into Turn 1. But then came another error: a lock-up on the front-left tyre, costing him more precious time. It took him six more laps to close the gap again and finally overtake Leclerc for P3 on lap 52. At that point, the gap to Russell in P2 was around seven seconds.

Norris went on to deliver a brilliant final stint, closing the gap rapidly, but in the end, it wasn’t enough. He finished the race in third place.

Did Norris’s mistakes cost him P2? Absolutely. The current championship leader could have secured more valuable points and limited the damage done during Saturday’s poor qualifying. Piastri now moves up to second in the standings, just three points behind.

One thing is certain – the fight for the title is only just getting started.

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