Norris 'a bit soft' in Bahrain charge to sixth

Lando Norris was glad to make up for missing out on points in Australia by taking sixth in Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix, but felt he was "a bit soft" at times through the race.

Norris bounced back from a poor start that saw him drop as low as 14th on the opening lap after an off-track excursion to finish sixth for McLaren at the Bahrain International Circuit, picking up his first points in F1. Fernando Alonso is the only driver to have bettered Norris' result for McLaren since the end of 2014.

Norris pulled off a number of overtakes through the race and kept Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen at bay for the final 15 laps, but felt he could have been more aggressive in his approach. 

"Obviously it was much better than Australia, which is a good thing, a good amount of points for sixth. Even with going through the gravel a bit at the start, still managing to get back to P6, I’m very happy," Norris said.

"The pace, especially in the first stint, was very good. I think I could have been a bit more attacking. I was a bit soft sometimes into Turn 1. I could have gone for an overtake, but I didn’t want to risk a lock-up or something silly because I knew I had pace.

"It was fun, much more fun than Australia. I managed to get past some drivers this time through overtaking rather than just being lucky. It was much more enjoyable, and much better for myself and the team."

The Bahrain weekend marked one of McLaren's strongest showings for some time as the team got both cars into Q3, with Norris' teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr., starting the race seventh. Sainz ran sixth early on before contact with Max Verstappen effectively ended his race.

Norris took heart from McLaren's display, saying: "I think between qualifying and the race it was definitely one of our strongest for some time.

"There's a lot of work to do to be constantly here and beating the midfield guys. But our race seemed better than anticipated because we thought we were better in qualifying trim than we were going to be today."