McLaren are "committed to improving the package," claims Norris after tough Silverstone race

McLaren endured a frustrating British Grand Prix as neither Lando Norris nor Oscar Piastri had the pace to challenge for the podium, although the team still emerged from Silverstone with a valuable haul of championship points.

After showing encouraging speed in Saturday's Sprint, McLaren struggled to match the pace of Ferrari and Mercedes over Sunday's Grand Prix distance.

Norris lost ground at the start, unable to replicate the rapid getaway that had helped him in the Sprint. He spent much of the afternoon battling Red Bull's Isack Hadjar but lacked the outright speed to join the fight for the podium positions.

Late drama ahead eventually promoted Norris to fourth place after Max Verstappen retired with a rear wing failure and Kimi Antonelli's race unravelled following a technical issue and subsequent penalty.

Despite narrowly missing the podium, Norris admitted the result exceeded McLaren's expectations based on the car's pace.

"We leave Silverstone with P3 yesterday and P4 today, two results far better than our realistic pace would suggest," the reigning champion said.

"There are some positives to take away, we executed well, had decent reliability today, and made the most of others' mistakes, which is a big part of racing."

Norris also thanked the home crowd for their support throughout the weekend: "Plus, the support from the fans has been amazing all weekend, so I'm proud to come away with a good haul of points."

While pleased with the outcome, the Briton acknowledged there is still significant work to do before the next round at Spa-Francorchamps.

"We'll now go away and focus on the areas for improvement before heading to Spa. There's a lot for us to work on, but we're committed to improving the package, so our results match our true performance."

On the other side of the garage, Oscar Piastri's afternoon was effectively over before it had properly begun.

The Australian became caught in a first-lap squeeze that damaged his front wing, forcing him to complete an additional lap before returning to the pits for repairs. The unscheduled stop dropped him to the back of the field, leaving him with too much ground to recover despite improved race pace.

Reflecting on the incident, Piastri described it as a race-ending setback: "A tough day," he said. "I got sandwiched on the first lap which broke my front wing. Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could have done and it ruined my race."

Piastri nevertheless took encouragement from the underlying performance of the MCL40 once he had clean air.

"Our pace was a bit stronger today, and the car was better in clean air, but the collision meant we couldn't capitalise on any of it," continued the Australian.

Like Norris, he pointed to the team's ongoing development programme as McLaren looks to close the gap to the front-runners.

"The team are working hard to improve the car, especially around rear grip, so we will keep pushing. We'll debrief and turn our focus to Spa," concluded Piastri.