Formula One leader Lando Norris said he had made too many mistakes in a Bahrain Grand Prix won in impressive fashion by McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri on Sunday, and was struggling to feel at one with his car.
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Norris is now just three points ahead of Piastri, who moved up to second in the championship.
While that was an improvement on starting the weekend only a point clear of Red Bull's four-time world champion Max Verstappen, Norris now has the man he really needs to beat breathing down his neck.
"I made too many mistakes with the overtakes, the out-of-position (at the start). It was a messy race for me," said the Briton.
The trouble started on Saturday when Norris qualified only sixth, with Piastri on pole.
The Briton said then that he had been 'clueless on track' and it got worse at the start on Sunday when he parked his car on the grid outside the painted box.
That triggered a five-second penalty, dropping Norris to 14th place.
A safety car bunched up the field but Norris still struggled to get past Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, eventually doing so eight laps from the end, and ending up behind Mercedes' George Russell.
"I’m a little bit happier today that I managed to get back to P3. I had a good start, all those things. But I think P2 was the best we could have achieved today. So we should have achieved it," said Norris.
"We didn’t, and I didn’t, because of some mistakes. So, mixed feelings... car is obviously mega, as Oscar showed, but just too many mistakes there."
Asked what positives he could take from the race, Norris replied: "That it’s finished, probably."
He was third into the first corner but the penalty undid the good work. He pitted earlier than others, pushed hard and then paid the price for having hotter and older tyres.
"Just every time I did one thing good, I did two bad in a way," he said
Norris was his own fiercest critic on Saturday and he continued in the same vein on Sunday as he aired the problems he is having.
"I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes," he said. "I have no doubt about that, that I’m good enough, and all of those things.
"But something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season.
"Then, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car; how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far."