Ferrari took the headlines and the honors from the opening day of the weekend in Imola, setting the best time in both free practice sessions on Friday. However, behind the Maranello team there is another team to which particular attention must be paid, namely McLaren.
Oscar Piastri finished in second place, about two tenths behind Charles Leclerc, the reference driver of the day, but what impressed the most was not so much the pace shown on the flying lap, but rather the race pace. It’s clear that on a circuit like Imola, which is very narrow and where it’s not easy to keep a short distance from the car in front, qualifying plays a very important role, but in terms of pace the updated MCL38 seems to have given interesting indications.
Piastri had a good run on the hard, while Norris dedicated himself to the medium, at least before encountering some traffic towards the end of his stint which raised his times. The Brit himself said he was confident for the rest of the weekend despite not being able to set a good time in FP2, given his twelfth place finish.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Regardless of the position in the standings, however, the sensations in the car and the reference from his teammate give confidence: “I think it was a good day. FP1 was a bit confusing, we did some aerodynamic tests, then we had some small problems, so it wasn’t the easiest day of the year”, commented Norris, who took on the data collection work in FP1 for the engineers by mounting the classic rakes on their car to obtain the numbers useful for evaluating the behavior of the package introduced in Miami, where with only one free practice session there was no time to carry out in-depth tests.
“But we made excellent steps from the first to the second free practice session, I was comfortable, I felt good in the car. I think we are in a good position, even though it was very windy today. Overall, it was a positive day, a good start to the weekend.”
Norris seems very confident in McLaren’s potential, which doesn’t happen often, as the English driver has a tendency to hide out in the first part of the weekend, then come out for the rest of the weekend.
“For qualifying we have to compare the data against Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, because they also seem fast, in order to understand where we are compared to them. But for now we seem fast, we are in a good position, I think we don’t have to change much, just make small changes and put all the pieces together.”
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