Norris says MCL38 'on the edge' in Hungary heat

Lando Norris finished top of the timesheets after Friday practice at the Hungaroring, but admitted that the McLaren was rather more 'on the edge' than he would ideally like.

Norris set the quickest time of the day with a lap of 1:17.788s on the soft compound tyres set shortly after a red flag stoppage for Charles Leclerc spinning off in the Ferrari.

Max Verstappen was next quickest but was still 0.243s slower than Norris, while Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were also within half a second of Norris' best time.

Norris said that it had been an overall good day, but admitted that his lap hadn't come easy and that the high heat conditions in Budapest were set to be a definite challenge this weekend.

“I feel like we have the speed in the car, it’s just being able to deliver it when you need to,” he told the media in the paddock after the end of the second practice session.

• Read also: Norris leads Verstappen in FP2 as Leclerc spins out

“You can have a fast car that’s easy to drive – that’s in an ideal world. Or you can have, more often than not, a fast car which is a little bit more on the edge and a little bit more difficult," he explained.

"It’s about playing around with the balance of where you want to sit," he continued. "A lot of that is just down to driver preference and so forth.

"It felt good today, but definitely there’s a little bit more from a comfort side that I would like, so that I can deliver a little bit more than just one lap a day.

"We made some steps forward between the sessions which is pleasing, and the feeling of the car is reasonable. The grip still feels a little low, so it can be tricky in places, but we’ll work on that

As hot as things were on Friday, Norris said he expected things temperatures to be even higher over the weekend and for the race itself.

“Sunday is going to be a challenge for all of us,” Norris said. “Just staying hydrated and drinking my drinks is important, but that’s part of it. It’s mentally draining, mentally tough.

"Normally it feels quite physical around here but it doesn’t feel it for whatever reason this year," he added. "More just sweating and losing energy and not making mistakes, that’s going to be the biggest challenge for us.”

Norris' team mate Oscar Piastri has some teething problems that held him back on Friday, with a water pressure problem in FP1 and more time lost in the late afternoon session due to suspected damage to the floor of his MCL38.

"FP1 was pretty good apart from the little reliability issue we had at the start,” Piastri commented. "We just need to understand what happened [in FP2] because something was clearly not as it should be.

"The stuff from FP1 was not an issue," he insisted. "After that, I think FP2 we probably just need to understand what exactly it was that made it so difficult.

"We just need to go through that and hopefully we’ll be somewhere towards the front," he continued. "We looked competitive in FP1, Lando looked competitive in FP2, so hopefully we can get both of us back up there tomorrow,”

“Friday practice at the Hungaroring has been useful with extremely hot conditions in the first session, followed by a cooler FP2," summarised McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.

"We could work on our test items throughout the day," he said. "We were able to look at different tyres as well and how they behave in these hot conditions

“Overall we can see that the car behaves well. Lando was in a good rhythm all the way. With Oscar, there are a few things we need to look at overnight to allow us to be in condition to compete for the [top] positions on the grid.

Stella said that it was looking "like a very tight field" this weekend, and not just from the usual big name rivals to McLaren such as Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

"Not only because of the usual competitors, but it looks like some midfielders have made a decent step forward as well. Anyhow, it looks like an exciting weekend ahead for the fans.”

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter