Norris: Monza was damage limitation

Despite the massive improvement McLaren have shown following a midseason upgrade of their MCL60 back in Austria, the team have still struggled for pace on low downforce circuits, which was the case in Spa, and while they have tried to find solutions for Monza, they still struggled despite making some progress on that front.

Despite the tough race, Norris was content with the result, he told Motorsport.com: "I think I'm still happy. It was P8, some points. And maybe we were hoping for a touch more. But also at times we were expecting not to even be in the points. So I'm happy with it.

"I think it was damage limitation," the Briton added. "At the same time, good to see the progress we made on a low-downforce circuit. I know there wasn't a lot, and a bit of is just things you have from last year, and trying to optimise them for here.

"But we made some good improvements, and it was a raceable car, which is a good step forward. And there's only one more low downforce track this season [Las Vegas]," he pointed out.

Norris spent a good chunk of his race looking at the rear end of Alex Albon's Williams as he chased the Thai for seventh, but to no avail as the FW45 was simply too fast on the straights while Albon did not make any mistakes despite the pressure.

"I knew it before already very well," Norris said admitting the rear of the Williams has become familiar. "I've been in this position a lot over the last few years! Credit to Alex, he drove a very good race. He didn't make any mistakes, which is annoying.

"I tried, we had good battles. I tried quite a bit. But they were too quick for us in the straights. And even with DRS, I catch maybe 2-3kph more than what he's doing. So, I'm still happy.

"Tough, because of the Williams maybe not allowing us to get as many points as we I think could have achieved. But he drove a good race, and limited what we could do. The pace was good. But the overtaking was too difficult," the McLaren driver concluded.

McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella was also content by the improvement of the MCL60 in low downforce configuration despite still requiring more work.

"I think we can be pleased with the pace shown by the MCL60 today [Sunday]," he said. "We were ready for greater degradation and a more difficult race but in reality, our degradation was manageable, and we were limited only by the capacity to overtake.

"Considering where we were in Spa, two races ago, this feels very encouraging," he insisted. "The team have worked very hard since the Belgian Grand Prix to address our issues with top speed. They've done a very good job, and parts were being delivered here until the last minute.

"So, well done to everyone, and now we look forward to Singapore, where we hope to be competitive," Stella concluded.

McLaren scored points only with Norris, as Oscar Piastri suffered from a front wing damage while fighting with Lewis Hamilton, the latter having a rare moment of misjudgment trying to overtake the McLaren rookie, and given a five second penalty.

While Hamilton recovered from the penalty to finish sixth, Piastri had to settle for 12th.