Lando Norris suggested that he was feeling off the pace in practice for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Friday, even though the final FP2 classification might suggest otherwise.
The McLaren driver was third fastest in the first session and moved up to P2 in the later practice, finishing just three thousandths of a second behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
But that's no where near good enough for Norris, who wants to sustain the momentum generated by his victory in last week's Dutch Grand Prix which saw him finish the race over 20s clear of Max Verstappen and the rest of the field.
“An okay first day on track today," Norris reported. "FP1 wasn’t great, I felt a bit uncomfortable with the car, but FP2 was better.
"I’m quite a long way off, so [there's] a bit of work for me to do," he told the official F1 channel in the paddock after the end of today's two one-hour sessions. "I struggled a little bit today, [but] the car was quick."
Norris wasn't the only driver to find the track conditions to be a bit of a handful, after the circuit was resurfaced over the summer and unexpected changes made to key kerbs such as Ascari.
"I think everyone is probably is going to say a similar thing," he acknowledged. "Just low grip, probably more with the car in FP1," he said, suggesting that the track got better as more rubber was put down.
"The track improved a lot for FP2 and I probably just didn’t progress as much as I needed to," he agreed, hoping that McLaren would be able to improve overnight. "I think we turn it up and others don’t.
"I’ve got some areas to focus on with my driving in FP3, but we’ve got a good starting point to work from as a team.
“It’s close," he said. “Between Ferrari, us, Red Bull I’m sure after FP1, and Mercedes are very quick as well. It looks like definitely eight cars this time. Eight cars all looking fast. It should make it exciting tomorrow.”
Norris felt that his team mate Oscar Piastri could easily have been on top today if not for an error on his flying lap attempt. "Oscar was very quick. He made a big mistake and probably lost about four or five tenths. Otherwise he easily should have been P1, and that’s quite a long way off."
\
From his perspective, Piastri said he had some things that he knew he had to clean up in final practice to be fully prepared for Saturday afternoon's crucial qualifying.
"Some things to tidy up, definitely, but I think the pace and potential is definitely there so I’m leaving pretty happy," said the Australian. who felt that the hot Italian sunshine had been a big factor today.
“It’s not as hot track temperatures as what we’ve seen at some places this year, but it definitely feels warm enough," he said. "It’s never fun when they’re so hot [but] it’s the same thing for everybody.
"Fortunately, Monza’s not the most physical track that we go to. It’s a lot of straights, a lot of fresh air," he explained.
“Monza’s a little bit different now with some of the changes they’ve made, with the kerbs and the resurfacing, so it’s taken a little bit to get used to that.
"The tyres have been an interesting point today for everybody, so it’ll be interesting to see what that’s like throughout the rest of the weekend."
Team principal Andrea Stella also focused on the impact of the new track surface on the tyres. "It looks like the tarmac is a lot smoother, which offers some opportunities from a set-up point of view.
"We've been working to understand the tyres on this new tarmac, which seemed to show that they behave differently when compared to the past," he continued."As usual here, we're trying to nail the set-up for the long straights while also saving some grip in the corners.
"Both sessions today were pretty busy, but overall it was a positive couple of sessions," he concluded. "The weekend looks very, very tight from a competitiveness point of view, with the usual four teams in condition to fight for the podium.”
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
