Norris reveals reason for McLaren EDGE at Austrian Grand Prix

Lando Norris has admitted that McLaren have felt the benefit of wind tunnel work on their car this weekend as he qualified third in the Austrian Sprint race.

The Briton has not enjoyed a great season, collecting only 12 points with a sixth-place finish in Australia being his best result of 2023 so far.

He suffered a frustrating Canadian Grand Prix in particular, losing out on points due to a time penalty awarded for "unsportsmanlike" driving, one which the team have opted to review.

However, after qualifying fourth for the Grand Prix on Sunday, he went one better for Saturday's Sprint, finishing third on the grid.

He was second behind Max Verstappen for much of the session before the Dutchman's team-mate, Sergio Perez, overtook him near the end.

READ MORE: McLaren left BAFFLED as Norris penalised for 'unsportsmanlike conduct' under the SAFETY CAR

Nevertheless, Norris was delighted with the pace he could show and believes the step forward has been taken due to extensive testing work.

"On the whole, I felt like I did a better lap, even though I was a lot further off pole," he told Sky Sports. "Max must’ve done a good job.

“It was proven that pretty much as we changed things around, things started to take a bit of a step forward. What we have this weekend, on the car, was already started to be in the wind tunnel and developed and CFD (computational fluid dynamics) months ago.

"It’s not like everything we have now is because of that. The progress [and] increase of speed in progress we’ve seen since then, has definitely been a step forwards."

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