Norris felt he could also have won in Canada two weeks before Spain, but Verstappen was victorious in both races.

He and Red Bull remain the team to beat after three wins in the past five races and seven out of 10 this year, but McLaren have emerged as their most consistent challenger at the front.

Verstappen said: “We’re pushing as hard as we can, of course, to keep on improving. So that’s what we’ll try to do now in the coming races, which I think are, of course, very important to see where we’re at.

“McLaren at the moment, they’re just very solid. They’re good everywhere, every single track, kind of. And also, I think you could see in Barcelona, they were very good on their tyres. They could just push more on them compared to, I think, everyone else on the grid without actually degging off [slowing down] that much at the end of stints.

“So these are things that we have to do better. Plus, of course, our known issues with the kerbs and bumps, low speed, basically. And yeah, those are things that we try to understand better also for next year.”

Mercedes led both races with Russell, having improved following a series of upgrades, but the Briton said he believed the former champions still needed to improve their car to be regular contenders for victory.

“We’ve made a really good step,” Russell said. “But we still need that little bit extra to be in the fight week-in, week-out.”