This Saturday started badly for McLarento say the least, with technical glitches that prevented the orange cars from completing more than six laps in Free Practice 2 – all to the credit of Lando Norrisvictim of brake problems, while a problem linked to the power unit was discovered when starting the single-seater from Daniel Ricciardo Saturday morning. This deprived them of the only practice session allowing them to rack up representative running on a dry track.
The McLarens had an excellent qualifying session on Friday with Norris third and Ricciardo sixth; both men proved powerless once morest the Red Bull of Sergio Pérez and at the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz during the sprint, but they nevertheless saved the top 6 and will monopolize the third row of the starting grid for the Grand Prix.
“We still probably approach the day tomorrow not being as well prepared as others”analyzed Ricciardo following the sprint. “I guess in a way that’s partly true, because I’m sure some have filled the tank and done [quelques tests] in the second practice session. We stay, say, half a notch behind, so to speak. Today was a whole notch.”
“Maybe there will be a little compromise tomorrow. I think we learned enough today to have the confidence to go into the day tomorrow without any real hesitation or question marks. We have enough knowledge, in my opinion. opinion, to run a sufficiently good race.”
“I wouldn’t say today is cause for concern, it’s more of an unknown. I can’t say I have that feeling for tomorrow.”
Tire management was a particular problem for Norris during this sprint, he who tried to keep pace with the leaders, Charles Leclerc et Max Verstappen. “It’s hard to judge your own pace once morest guys who go a second and a half faster. You always want to be able to keep up with them. Especially knowing where Carlos was [Sainz] and Sergio [Pérez], the best was to try to widen the gap and widen it as much as possible. Of course, no matter what I did, they would still have passed me. I used too much [les pneus]”concluded the Englishman.
Interview by Luke Smith
