SAKHIR, Bahrain -- Lando Norris said he is still "not clicking" with his McLaren car after a messy, error-filled comeback drive to the podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
F1's championship leader started from sixth after a disappointing qualifying -- Norris admitted afterwards he felt "clueless" about how to drive his car -- and earned himself an immediate five-second penalty after starting outside of his grid box.
Norris then had a series of scruffy wheel to wheel fights with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and was unable to catch and pass Mercedes driver George Russell for second late on.
Teammate Oscar Piastri won, although Norris has kept a three-point lead in the title fight.
"Mixed feelings," Norris said about his podium finish on Sunday evening. "I think the pace was good. The car's obviously mega, as Oscar showed. But yeah, just too many mistakes today."
Asked what the positives he could take from the race were, he said: "That I finished, probably."
Norris' grid slot mistake was two-fold -- he initially lined up too early, before over-correcting.
"At the beginning, I was too far back. So I tried to creep forward and go forward and did the opposite. First time I've ever done this in my life. Shouldn't happen. But it did, and I paid the price for it."
The penalty left Norris on the back foot, prompting an early stop than planned and putting him into an aggressive mindset he felt contributed to his later errors.
"I had the penalty. I boxed earlier than everyone else. I had to push more to try and make up five seconds.
"Just about made it up. But then I'm on all the tyres, much hotter tyres, and kind of paid the price for that again. So just every time I did one thing good, I did two bad, in a way.
"I just kept stopping myself from making as much progress as I should have done today. So I mean, I'm happy that the pace was there ... But still just not in the best feeling with the car at the minute."
When asked if he felt like he needs to go back to the drawing board or if he feels like an answer is around the corner, Norris said: "I wish I knew the answer. I don't have an answer.
"Honestly, even for myself, whether or not I would share it with you guys, I don't know. But I just, you just know when you're an athlete, when you're a driver, whatever it is, you just know when things click, when you feel confident, when you feel comfortable. I'm confident that I have everything I need and I've got what it takes. I've no doubt about that, that I'm good enough and all of those things.
Teammate Piastri claimed a comfortable victory out in front and Norris said McLaren's class-leading car has been masking just how bad he feels driving it.
"The car was just mega. And that's helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute. But, you know, I'm just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say.
"And I've spent a lot of time even last night, you know, I left late last night to look into everything and understand, you know, what I'm struggling with, what's not clicking. Trying to figure out, you know, what's changed from last year to this year. Is it me? Is it some of the car? Like, it's complicated, but I'm not doubting myself.
"Even though sometimes it may seem like that, it's just something's not gelling, something's not clicking. And therefore, I just don't feel comfortable when I'm in the car."