Lando Norris finished Friday’s FP2 at Zandvoort in fourth place, after being the fastest of all in the morning session, but conditioned for almost the entire session by the damp track. The Englishman from McLaren, who enters these last ten races of the season as second in the championship behind Max Verstappen, was preceded in the afternoon session by Russell, Piastri and Hamilton in that order. However, McLaren, just like Mercedes, provided the best signals in view of the race.
“FP2 went well, it was nice to get back in the car. Zandvoort is not an easy track to come back to so abruptly, because it is fast, twisty and has a lot of ups and downs. – Norris explained to the microphones of the official F1 channel – However, we need to make some progress for tomorrow”. The papaya team is on everyone’s lips because of the possible chase for the Constructors’ title, also thanks to the difficulties that Red Bull and Sergio Perez are experiencing. Norris however does not consider the MCL38 to be the best car of the weekend.
“Are we the strongest this weekend? Probably not – he admitted – Mercedes seems a bit faster to me. But we are close. I don’t think there is a car that is clearly faster, it depends on many factors. From Miami we went well but then we didn’t bring any more updates, this is the first weekend in which we try to make some progress with the car: I am optimistic but I can’t say if they will work well straight away or not. Overall it was a good day – concluded #4 – we are close. We will have to improve something more during the night and we will be able to challenge the Mercedes“.
#Dutch #Norris #outlines #McLaren #Mercedes #challenge
