McLaren overhauled its driver line-up in the off-season as Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne moved on. Luckily for their replacements, the team has also produced a much more competitive car.

Carlos Sainz Jnr and Lando Norris therefore have plenty to be happy about. Each has bagged some impressive results, the pair get on well and McLaren has already confirmed both will remain at the team for the 2020 F1 season

Three races in, Sainz would have been forgiven for feeling somewhat nervous about his situation, as he failed to get a point on the board while Norris stunned with a top 10 qualifying position on his debut. An engine failure in the first race and collision with Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat in the next two races set Sainz back.

Then Sainz’s luck changed, and since then he’s led the charge for McLaren. He went into the summer break in fine shape off the back of two fifth places in a row, even beating Pierre Gasly on merit and closing to within five points of the Red Bull driver in the championship.

Norris has been consistently the stronger of the pair in qualifying and picked out qualifying in Australia as one of his season highlights so far. “Before we were not even really talking about getting into Q3,” he explained, “it was about ‘this is what we have to do to get into Q2’ and so on. To get into Q3 and P8 or wherever I was, that was the first big surprise. Which was very good for me.”

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However he admitted he didn’t take the most from the opportunity in his first race. “In the race, I wasn’t under-prepared but there was a lot of things going on, I was nervous as hell and just a lot of things which gets through at you and all of a sudden.”

Bahrain went better. “I got knocked down, had to do some overtaking, manage the tyres quite a bit, strategy came into play, then you have to think about it a lot more.”

Converting those strong qualifying performance in into points-scoring finishes hasn’t always been straightforward. Norris tends to be more cautious at the starts, preferring to ensure he gathers the important race mileage each time out and is around at the chequered flag to bag points.

On more than on occasion Sainz has come past him early on and stayed there until the end. Norris has also lost points to mechanical misfortune though, notable in France and Germany.

Between them, Norris and Sainz have amassed enough points for McLaren to feel very confident in their chances of holding on to fourth in the world championship. But Norris must also fancy his chances of cutting into his team mate’s lead in the second half of the season.

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Carlos Sainz Jnr vs Lando Norris: Key stats

Carlos Sainz Jnr vs Lando Norris: Who finished ahead at each round

AUS BAH CHI AZE SPA MON CAN FRA AUT GRE GER HUN Carlos Sainz Jnr Q R Lando Norris Q R

Carlos Sainz Jnr vs Lando Norris: Qualifying gap

Times based on the last qualifying round at each race weekend in which both drivers set a time

2019 F1 season