Norris bemoans ‘worst Friday in F1 for a long time’ despite P3

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris says he endured his “worst Friday for a long time” despite finishing third in the timesheets in second practice for the Italian Grand Prix.

Norris was eighth-fastest in opening practice at Monza before he jumped up to third in the timesheets after improving late on in FP2.

But despite the result on paper, the Briton’s afternoon session did not go to plan as he saw his run plan hampered by an issue with his Energy Recovery System that kept him sidelined for much of the session.

“It was probably my worst Friday for a long time,” Norris said. “Too much time in the garage today really.

“I only did really five or six laps at the end of the session because we had some engine problems and only just about got it fixed for the end of the session.

“So not perfect because it puts me quite a bit on the back foot, mainly for Sunday because I didn’t do any high fuel running – so it’s not ideal.

“I need to do a bit of catch up tomorrow in FP3, maybe try and do some high fuel and low fuel [runs], which I think will compromise my feeling a little bit going into the quali, so we’ll have to see. Not the perfect day.”

But asked about McLaren’s prospects for the rest of the Monza weekend, Norris replied: “It should be positive. I don’t think P3 today is anything to be happy about.

“It’s not bad at the end of the day, but [Daniel] Ricciardo was quick, [Max] Verstappen was quick… so I expect them to be ahead tomorrow, but we have a chance.

“It’s a track where you can overtake reasonably well – still not easy, but reasonably well – and also that comes a lot down to race pace, so we’ll see.

“I don’t think our race pace is terrible, I think it’s one of our better weekends, and we just need to make sure we make the most of qualifying to be in a good position come the race,” he added.

“But it’s going to be close. Everyone looks really quick. We still don’t know what engine modes everyone’s running from tomorrow in qualifying and how much more everyone’s got in the bag from today so still a little bit unknown compared to other teams, but we’ll find out tomorrow.”