McLaren driver Lando Norris is focusing on finding some way of staying in contention throughout this weekend after coming top in second practice for the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort.
Norris was 0.023s quicker than Max Verstappen could manage, although the Red Bull's first and arguably best flying lap on the soft compound had been compromised by traffic.
Even so, the timesheets reflected another strong start to a Grand Prix for McLaren which has been rejuvenated by upgrades after a troubled start to the season, and the MCL60 now rated as the fastest car on the track after the RB19.
There had been concerns about McLaren's form here after Norris was just P6 at the end of the first session, but the Briton said that it had all been part of the day's plan for the team.
"A good day for us. We sacrificed quite a bit of FP1 to do a lot of aero running so we were a little bit behind on kind of learning and trying and testing some things, but valuable stuff for the future.
Norris admitted that he was feeling 'rusty' after a month off for Formula 1's official summer shutdown. “It’s nice to be back, good to be back in the car. [I was] feeling a little bit rusty, I will say. A few laps and you’re back on it.
"I think to end up how we did today was encouraging and makes us look forward to tomorrow," he said, already thinking of how they will approach qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
But it was a tightly packed day for everyone: 16 cars were within eight tenths of the top time and eight different constructors featured in the top ten. Norris agreed that it was going to be a pitched battle tomorrow.
“It’s going to be very tight between many people," he acknowledged. “Normally the Red Bulls just step it up another level when it comes to Saturday, so we’ll see.
"You have the Williams there, Alpine are there, AlphaTauris are there. It’s just going to be a scrap, a lot of people fighting for the top spot.
"It’s close. I think it’s going to be very close come tomorrow. It’s a short track, one minute 12, one minute 11, probably one minute 10s or something tomorrow," he replied when asked what the lap times would be like.
"It's not just easy to get to the top, but just as easy to get knocked out early on," he cautioned. "If you do a good job you can get all the way to a good [place] in Q3 but it’s going to be tough. We can stay there, just no mistakes."
Norris said he was feeling good on the low-fuel runs, but not so much on the high fuel pace. The team will have to make a decision overnight about whether to prioritise single lap performance for qualifying, or long distance race pace.
“It’s a tough decision,” Norris mused. “It’s one we have to talk about and decide because it’s not the easiest track to overtake on.
“Even if we qualify ahead of a Red Bull, our race is not with them on Sunday, they’re way too fast for us,” he conceded. “Even if I had the best tyre degradation I’ve ever had, they’ll still overtake us.
"Our race will probably not be with them but it’s a difficult track to overtake on, so we’ll decide tonight.”
Norris team mate Oscar Piastri was eighth quickest in FP1 but crashed out of the second session after going into turn 3 "a little bit hot" and trying "to turn in a bit aggressively and unfortunately found the wall, so it’s a shame".
His accident also caught out his predecessor at McLaren, current AlphaTauri driver Daniel Ricciardo, and triggered the only red flag of FP2. Piastri plans to bounce back from the unfortunate incident tomorrow.
“I think we can go into tomorrow pretty confident," he said. "Obviously I’ve got a few less laps under my belt right now, and I probably have a bit to learn for tomorrow, but it’s encouraging that the car is looking quick.
“It’s clearly been a good day on Lando’s side, it’s been a quick FP2 for him," he added. "I think even before [my accident] I was feeling quite good with the car, the pace looked quite reasonable on the hard tyre."
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