He may have finished the second free practice of the 2020 Italian Grand Prix in third place, and as a driver to get close to Mercedes’s sprawling pair – but McLaren’s Lando Norris was unhappy on Friday, having limited him to just 19 power unit. Rolls in FP2.
After completing an FP1 with the eighth fastest, Norris was hampered by a problem deploying an energy recovery system on his MCL35 in practice two that sent him into the garage for most of the session.
But after McLaren handled the problem and sent it off, Norris managed to have the third fastest session time – although he was more concerned about the Grimlins’ his car than any times the headlines grabbed …
FP2: Hamilton heads Bottas while Norris takes third in his second training at Monza
Norris’ assessment at the end of the day was “Maybe my worst Friday in a long time.” “A lot of time in the garage today really.
“I did only five or six laps at the end of the session because we had some problems with the engine and it only got fixed at the end of the session. So it’s not ideal because it puts me a little bit behind, especially for a Sunday because I’ve never done any high-fuel sports – so it’s not perfect.” .
“I need to do some catch-up tomorrow in FP3, maybe try doing some high fuel and low fuel [runs], Which I think will affect how I feel a little bit when entering quali, so we have to see. Not the perfect day. “
However, asked how he felt the rest of the weekend had to move in from a McLaren pace perspective, after Carlos Sainz backed the team’s strong performance by finishing FP2 in P6, Norris replied: “It should be positive. I don’t think today’s P3 is anything that makes me happy. Its not bad at the end of the day, however [Daniel] Ricardo was fast, [Max] Verstappen was fast … so expect them to be applicants tomorrow, but we do have a chance.
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“It’s a track where you can pass reasonably well – still not easy, but reasonably good – that’s also due to race speed, so we’ll see. I don’t think our race pace is bad, I think it’s one of our best weekend getaways, and we need.” Just to make sure you get the most out of your qualification to be in good shape comes the race.
“But it will be close. Everyone looks really fast. We still don’t know what engine modes everyone will have from tomorrow in the qualifiers and how much everyone will get from today so it is still a bit unknown compared to the other teams, but we will find out tomorrow.”
2020 Italian GP FP2: Sainz cuts grass in Italy
Meanwhile, Sainz himself declared “very cheerful” with his speed on Friday, adding: “I feel like we’re on top of the car and set up so far and happy with the way it went on Friday, quite smoothly.”
But the Spaniard was preparing for “chaos” on Saturday, after the unusual scenes during last year’s qualifiers for the Italian Grand Prix, which saw the majority of runners miss in the third quarter of their last sessions after marching around the track. Rolls.
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“You can see even in FP2 where you don’t really need a traction, everyone is practicing pulling,” said Sainz, who survived a small run in Lesmo’s first in the session before ending up 0.224 seconds from Norris.
“So obviously everyone is going to be looking for streams, and it can create some mess I think. As long as we can all do our qualifying sessions, messing with clouds is part of the show. I don’t care if there is too much of the show but I think what we want is All is safety. “
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