Lando Norris and McLaren were the big surprise on Friday at Zandvoort. For once they managed to steal the covers from Max Verstappen and Red Bull, moreover right at the home of the two-time world champion, albeit for a lack of thousandths.
A performance which according to the British driver is not accidental and which is the result of the great work done by the Woking team in the last two months. A work that also continued in Holland, where further updates were introduced for the MCL60, which once again seem to have given positive results.
“A good day for us. It was nice to get back in the car. I was feeling a bit rusty, but I have to say that a few laps are enough to get the feeling back. We sacrificed quite a bit of FP1 to do a lot of aero tests, so we are We fell a little behind, but we tested some valuable things for the future. I think finishing the day like we did today was encouraging and makes us look to tomorrow with confidence” said Norris.
A great battle for pole position is expected for tomorrow, but Lando seems really convinced that he too can be part of it with the potential shown today.
“I’m 100% confident, but we’ll all be very close tomorrow. It’s a very short track, so it will be a matter of thousandths rather than hundredths. The Alpines, Williams and AlphaTauris also seemed fast to me, so I expect to seeing loads of drivers fighting for pole position. This will make it easy to do both: you could be eliminated early if you make a mistake or it will pay off if you do well. If you do a good job, you can get a good finish in Q3. It will be tough, so you shouldn’t make any mistakes.”
The stewards recover the damaged MCL60 of Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL60
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
Piastri makes mea culpa: “I entered too fast”
Today, however, was not a day all rosy for McLaren, because on the other hand Oscar Piastri probably committed the first serious mistake of his rookie season, ending up in a block at turn 3 in the first minutes of FP2.
Among other things, to avoid it, compatriot Daniel Ricciardo also crashed, breaking his wrist. An injury that will prevent him from getting back on track tomorrow, giving up his AlphaTauri to rookie Liam Lawson.
For his part, Piastri didn’t look for excuses, assuming the blame for what happened: “I went in a little too fast, I tackled the corner a little too aggressively and unfortunately I went into the wall. It’s a shame and I I’m sorry to have to force the boys to work so hard tonight. We’ll try to do better tomorrow and have a good day.”
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