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Laurence Edmondson, F1 Editor
SHANGHAI, China — McLaren driver Lando Norris believes championship leaders Red Bull are locked on for a comfortable one-two victory at the Chinese Grand Prix and doubts he will be able to put up a fight for third place against the Ferraris starting behind him.
Norris qualified fourth on the grid for Sunday’s full-length Chinese Grand Prix, behind the two Red Bulls and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, and ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri and the two Ferraris.
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But when he was asked if a podium finish was possible in the race, Norris laughed the prospect off.
“Yeah, no chance,” he said. “The Red Bulls will probably lap everyone multiple times!
“Ferrari, I think, will not be as quick as them but they’ll be close enough. I think they’re out of our league.
“As soon as they had clean air this morning it was quite easy for him to pull away. So not expecting anything surprising.
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“We said before the weekend we’d struggle, I think we’ve done a better job than we thought in low fuel, but definitely in high fuel everything that we expect, happens, and I think that’s why we struggle so much.
“I still look forward to it, I think we can still have a good race, we can still fight for some good points, and if we get lucky with some other things it can still be a good day.”
Norris expects McLaren to be in a battle for points with Alonso and Mercedes’ George Russell, who qualified eighth, in Sunday’s race.
“I think we’re in a good position,” he said. “I think our battle will be with the Aston and probably with the Mercedes at some point, so we’ll see. But today I think was a good day.
“Even with what happened this morning [in the sprint race], I think our pace was not bad. I think comparing to Mercedes, comparing to Aston, we’re in a similar boat.
“It’s just Red Bull are a mile ahead and then Ferrari are another big chunk ahead of us. With everyone else I think we’re there or thereabouts, and should be a good race.”