The twinkling lights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit didn’t shine brightly for McLaren’s Lando Norris on Friday, as the British driver endured a difficult opening day at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Admitting he didn’t “feel too great” behind the wheel of his MCL39, Norris faced a cocktail of challenges, from lackluster pace to an unexpected pitlane shunt, while his teammate Oscar Piastri stole the show with a chart-topping performance in FP2.
Norris’ day got off to a rocky start as he managed only the sixth-fastest time in FP1 before improving to fifth in FP2.
But the real drama unfolded late in the second session when Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari clipped Norris’ car in the pitlane, damaging his front wing and bringing his practice to an untimely end.
The bizarre incident saw Ferrari’s mechanics sheepishly lend a hand to wheel Norris’ car back to the McLaren garage.
“They just changed the front wheel, the front wing, but those kind of things have been looking like they might happen with everybody having to scramble out the pits all season, really,” he told Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz.
Asked if the incident left him disappointed, he replied: “No, I mean, it cost the team a bit of money, which is a shame.”
“Not Feeling Too Great with the Car”
The bigger frustration for the Briton was his lack of pace compared to his usual high standards at Marina Bay, where he won last season. Norris admitted he struggled to connect with his MCL39.
“It’s just a difficult day for me, not feeling too great with the car,” he said. “Yeah, missing all of the feelings that I had here last year, so plenty of things to work on. Yeah, just a bad day.”
Despite Piastri’s strong performance, Norris was quick to shoulder the blame.
“I mean, Oscar’s quick, so I’ve got nothing to complain about, bar just not doing a very good job,” he said.
With limited long-run data under his belt, Norris joked: “I’ll wing it and go into the race.”
Piastri Finds His Flow
Piastri, who leads the championship from Norris by 25 points, ended Friday on a high, topping FP2 with a confident display. The Australian explained how he dialed himself into the session as grip improved.
“Found my feet on the medium at the end there and then, yeah, soft felt good,” he said.
“So, yeah, obviously not much representative kind of race running, but no, the car’s been in a good place. I feel like I’ve learned a lot through today and that’s the aim of practice. So, it’s been a good day.”
With qualifying on Saturday looming as the pivotal test around Singapore’s unforgiving streets, Piastri made clear where the team’s focus lies.
“Here, qualifying is a massive part of the weekend and it’s a massive part everywhere, but I think especially here, it’s one of the most important,” he added.
“So, you’d rather qualify further up and deal with the unknown for the race than qualify further back but know exactly what’s going to happen in the race because it’s not really going to help you.”
Read also: McLaren’s second shot at Constructors’ glory in Singapore
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