Formula 1: Lando Norris 'confident' of effort put in by McLaren after 'two frustrating weekends'

Marina Bay (Singapore): Lando Norris is confident of the work put in by McLaren ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix after two underwhelming races, which saw his outside chances of defending his title hang by a thread.

Norris had found his form just before and immediately after the summer break as he won the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Dutch GP across the break. He finished fourth in Italy and third at the Spanish Grand Prix, but struggled at the Azerbaijan GP, where he later retired after a multi-car collision and then finished an underwhelming sixth at the Bahrain GP in Malaysia.

His title chances are rather hanging by a thread as he has 188 points and trails the championship leader Kimi Antonelli by 132 points.

Speaking in the press conference ahead of the Singapore GP at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, the defending champion hoped that the Papayas have done the work to resolve the issues, but sounded practical that he wants to take the car on the track first.

"There were some obvious (things), like straight-line speed and the issues I was having with the car. And also how we can unlock more performance from the car to get back to where we were, which is a tricky one. Baku we weren't too quick either, so it wasn't just a Malaysia thing," Norris told the media on the Press conference day on Thursday.

"I'm hopeful, need to get [the car] on track first and see how it is. It's been a frustrating two weekends trying to figure out what the issue has been... It has cost me quite a lot.

"I'm confident the team has done a good job; they have put a lot of work into figuring things out, but I need to get out on track and see how it is first," he added.

The Singapore GP is hosting the final Sprint race of the season, and Norris reflected on the shorter duration race. "(Sprints) I think you don't have much time to get up to speed, and one of my strengths is to find the limits with not much time.

"It is a bigger challenge to get up to pace and figure out everything in one session. I enjoy that challenge, and I think I can make a bit of a difference (there) and hopefully capitalise," he added.

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