Lando Norris says he’d moderately crash in observe than not push the restrict of his automobile after struggling session-ending suspension injury throughout FP2 on the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Norris, 31 factors off the championship lead, was on a push lap on smooth tires when he understeered into Flip 4. His steering wheel locked to the correct, his automobile immediately gripped up and slapped the skin barrier with its rear-left wheel. The injury was instant, and the Briton crawled again to pit lane to retire the automobile from the session.
However regardless of having accomplished simply seven laps for the session – following a closely disrupted first observe hour – Norris stated the closeness of the competitors this season offered the motivation to seek for the restrict.
“I used to be feeling good till then,” he stated. “I’d moderately have this and push and discover the bounds than not push in any respect.
“I’ve to push. It’s robust. I’m up towards some good guys. I’ve acquired to push and discover the restrict.”
Not solely did the incident go away Norris with no consultant time, it additionally price him an opportunity to finish a long-run simulation on Pirelli’s softest C6 tire compound, which is new to this circuit this season and has been used at solely three different tracks this 12 months.
“A expensive one, particularly right here,” he stated. “I might’ve preferred to have gotten some high-fuel laps in, particularly on these tires – the softer compound in comparison with final 12 months.
“The observe could be very completely different to final 12 months. It’s fairly a bit faster, and it’s a softer compound, which we don’t use that usually. However it’s what it’s. I’ll must make up for it.”
Norris famous that it wasn’t simply him who struggled for a clear lap in Baku, with teammate Oscar Piastri additionally shedding his photographs at a consultant quick time to a faucet of the boundaries at Flip 15 after which a lock-up at Flip 2.
“Actually I’m behind on the learnings now, but it surely’s a scrappy session from each my aspect and Oscar’s aspect,” Norris stated. “He appeared to be struggling slightly bit with the automobile as nicely, so we’ll see what we will make up for tomorrow.”
The title chief stated he additionally discovered it tough to extract essentially the most from his automobile regardless of feeling that it had the efficiency to steer the sector.
“I believe the tempo is there, it’s simply not the best to get essentially the most out of it in the intervening time,” stated Piastri. “That’s most likely the principle factor. We tried a number of issues in FP2; I’m certain we’ll look again and see what we will change for tomorrow.”
Regardless of the optimism from each side of the storage that McLaren will have the ability to flip issues round on Saturday, Norris stated he anticipated the battle for pole and victory can be tight.
“Actually [Ferrari seem to be in it],” he stated. “They had been simply the quickest right here final 12 months although Oscar received. I believe Ferrari shall be fast.
“Crimson Bull are going to be fast – they’re by no means good on Friday however then they fall asleep they usually get up they usually’re simply fast once more. I count on a problem from at the least three automobiles tomorrow.”
