McLaren ended Friday at the Belgian Grand Prix of Formula 1 showing positive signs, despite facing setbacks at Spa-Francorchamps. Lando Norris showed confidence after finishing the day second in FP2, even though he already knows he will lose ten positions on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.
Read more F1: Alpine experiences a day of contrasts on Friday in Spa
The current champion was only seventh in FP1, a session marked by problems that limited his track time. However, the team managed to improve the car’s behavior for FP2, allowing the British driver to finish the activity among the fastest.
“It was a day of progress on track at Spa. The first session wasn’t clean due to some issues that kept us in the garage, but we made positive steps with the car between FP1 and FP2,” said Norris. According to him, the performance in quick laps looks competitive, and the car’s balance improved compared to the start of the day.
Despite this, Norris avoided any overconfidence: “We won’t get ahead of ourselves. We’ve seen this pattern before on Fridays, and we expect our main rivals to show more of their potential tomorrow,” he said, highlighting that the team will continue working on analyzing the collected data.
Read more Rafael Câmara takes pole position and aims for another victory in F2 at Spa
The Brit also recalled that he will have an additional challenge on Sunday. Norris will serve a ten-place grid penalty after using a fourth power unit electronic system, a factor that increases the importance of a good performance in qualifying: “Our focus is to analyze the data overnight, see if we can take another step tomorrow before qualifying. We’ll see where we really are,” he added.
On the other side of the garage, Oscar Piastri finished FP1 in fifth and FP2 in sixth, in a day marked by a hydraulic leak identified at the end of the first session. The Australian had to wait while the team fixed the problem before returning to the track.
“It was a reasonable day. We had a delay in FP2 while the team fixed the cause of the hydraulic leak. I appreciate the work done, but we managed to make good progress in the session, and our pace looks competitive,” concluded Piastri. The Australian driver believes McLaren arrives on Saturday in a favorable position to improve in FP3 and seek a good result in qualifying.
Read more Chamber participates in test with Ferrari in Fiorano as a step towards F1
