MONACO (Reuters) -Winning the Monaco Grand Prix from pole position gave Lando Norris a big boost in his Formula One title battle with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, and may even mark a turning point, but the Briton said it had not solved all his problems.
The victory was Norris's second in eight races, and first since the Australian season-opener in Melbourne in March, leaving him three points adrift of Piastri.
Norris has struggled to get the most out of qualifying this season and to click with the car in the way he did last year, when he was fighting Red Bull's now four-times champion Max Verstappen for the crown.
"I’ve been working hard over the last few months to get back to having that momentum that I had in Australia, that confidence," he said.
"What I felt this weekend was a small step forward, but it’s not it. It’s not like I’ve nailed it now and everything’s back."
Norris said there were still things he needed to work on and that the team could do to give him the "things I need from the car in order to excel and maximise results, and the differences from last year to this year".
Norris, the first McLaren winner in Monaco since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, recognised it was a timely win, however.
"A good weekend for me, not just in terms of result but personally, to kind of give myself that momentum, that boost, definitely makes me feel better going into Barcelona next week," he said.
There is also a big front-wing technical change coming at the next race in Spain, which some see as a game changer. McLaren insist it will make no difference to them but the proof will come next weekend.
Piastri has won four of the eight races and Red Bull's Max Verstappen two while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc very nearly grabbed a home pole in Monaco and ended up second.
Team boss Andrea Stella agreed it was too early to talk of a turning point, and said consistency was key.
"This is a journey that is not changed by one stage of the journey," he told reporters. "I think this can cement what we have done so far,but for me we are nowhere near at the final destination."
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
