'It's an opportunity' – Norris targets China Sprint start to beat Russell and Mercedes

Lando Norris believes the start of Saturday's Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix is 'an opportunity for sure' to try and beat the Mercedes of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

The Mercedes duo looked dominant at the Shanghai International Circuit on Friday, as Russell topped the sole practice session and all three segments of Sprint Qualifying to take pole.

Reigning World Champion Norris proved to be best of the rest in third ahead of the 19-lap Sprint, but was still six-tenths behind Russell.

"I'm just happy with the result, I've not seen what I lost and gained or whatever," he said. "P3 is as good as we can do for the time being. Actually pretty happy to beat both the Ferraris today because they seemed pretty good the whole day. Satisfied, good position for tomorrow.

"Certainly things have been better this weekend, just because the track is a lot more simple from a power unit side of things, so everyone kind of falls in line a bit more. We certainly seemed to get a good amount of it at the end and it was close. A good lap put me in a good position."

With the new regulations, getting the current generation of car off the line has proved to be an additional challenge for drivers to get to grips with, as both Russell and Antonelli lost positions from the front row last weekend in Australia.

While Norris believes Mercedes will have got on top of any start issues, the Briton admitted it would be his best chance to challenge for victory.

"I don't expect them to get bad starts to be honest," said Norris. "For years, they've been one of the best starters.

"It's an opportunity for sure, I think they know what they did wrong last weekend in Melbourne and they'll probably be fine tomorrow but you never know. It's a good opportunity, easiest place to overtake is off the line, so we'll see what we can do."

McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri managed to split the Ferraris of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in fifth, and admitted that closing the gap to Mercedes, despite having the same power unit, would be difficult.

"I think the step in grip from the medium to the soft [tyre] was pretty big but obviously the gap to Mercedes is pretty impressive," he said. "Some things for us to try and work on but I think the car felt pretty good. It was a pretty decent lap so I don't think there was too much left.

"I think sector one we seemed good obviously, but six tenths in the last sector is impressive so we'll go and have a look where we're losing the time."