Lando Norris believes that McLaren is “in the fight” with the stage set for a tight qualifying battle to claim pole position for this year’s Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
Driving an MCL38 sporting an eye-catching Ayrton Senna tribute livery, Norris finished fourth in FP1 and fifth in FP2, 0.675s back from pacesetter Charles Leclerc in the latter session.
With Leclerc looking strong, Mercedes and Aston Martin resurgent in the hands of Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, plus Red Bull being on the back foot, Norris believes with a slight upturn in pace, McLaren will be in the mix on Saturday.
“I think we’re not bad at all, and it’s always tricky around here,” Norris said.
“First of all, it’s just nice to be back and driving around this track because it’s as chaotic as it always is and as difficult as it always is, but I think it’s a reasonable first day.
“Definitely lacking a little bit compared to Charles and the Ferrari, maybe the Mercedes, the Mercedes has been very quick as well, so I think everyone’s tighter, just because it’s a small track and an abnormal track, but we’re up there, we have a little bit to find, and I think it’s going to be a difficult day tomorrow, but we’re in the fight, so that’s the main thing.”
When asked what McLaren was missing on Friday, Norris relayed it was down to the mechanical set-up.
The Grand Prix winner noted that improving low-speed grip was key, but also that getting the right balance around Monaco is a delicate act.
“The main thing you want around here is low-speed grip,” Norris explained.
“So trying to change the balance and get a nice balance to help that and also just ride, the better the car can go over the bumps, and the softer it can feel, the better it can also feel.
“But there’s a trade-off, if you try and do that too much, you lose overall performance and vice versa, so it’s complicated, and we tried a few things today, so hopefully we can understand it tonight and improve it for tomorrow.”
Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri elected to forgo running on the soft tyre in FP2 and wound up 12th in the running order as a result.
“I’m pretty happy with how I’ve driven today,” the Australian said and given he went without the soft tyres on Friday afternoon, labeled the opening sessions of practice “a decent day.”
Looking ahead to Saturday, Piastri, like Norris, thinks things will be tight.
“Honestly, we could be first, we could be eighth,” he said. “I mean, even Aston [Martin] looked pretty decent, Alonso looked good, so it could be first, it could be 10th.
“You never know, it’s been very, very tight between everybody today.
“It looks like there’s a lot of quick cars out there, so whoever nails the lap is probably going to end up on top.”
