Sawt Falasteen - Norris talks up McLaren chances after double China disaster

The McLaren driver is 36 points behind championship leader George Russell of Mercedes after two grands prix and arrives in Suzuka after an embarrassing non-start in China.

Norris and McLaren have struggled to get to grips with sweeping new regulations, but he said the car had "a lot of potential" as he targets a positive result in Japan.

"What we are thinking of is getting on the podium first of all and then returning to winning races," said the Briton.

"The points then take care of themselves and we'll see what we can claw back, and we're confident in that.

"I have a good belief in the team and I think we can have the best car this year," he added.

Norris finished fifth in the season-opener in Australia and fourth in the sprint in China, but did not even make the grid for the grand prix in Shanghai.

Team-mate Oscar Piastri also did not start as both cars suffered separate technical issues.

Norris said McLaren now understood what the problems were but admitted that the double failure "hurt us as a team".

"What hurt most was the fact it was out of our control," he said.

"But we've worked hard to figure things out, to understand how it happened, why it happened, and of course we'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again."

P.AbuBaker--SF-PST