Lando Norris has labelled the error that brought an early end to his Friday practice running at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix as “annoying”.
The McLaren driver had topped the first session on Formula 1’s return to the Baku City Circuit as both McLarens hit the ground running.
But a mistake at Turn 4 early in FP2 left Norris crawling back to the pits for his mechanics to perform repairs on his car, leaving him underprepared for the weekend ahead.
Norris’ “costly” mistake
Norris was pushing on his second flying attempt of the session when he clipped the wall at T4 and damaged the rear-left suspension on his McLaren.
He had hit the wall on the other side of the car moments earlier out of Turn 3 but escaped without damage for that mistake before ultimately being punished at the next right-hander.
The damage left him crawling back to the pits as he battled the crab-effect the wonky suspension created, eventually returning to the garage. He was unable to return to the track and missed out on valuable data gathering that his rivals completed.
“A costly [mistake],” Norris conceded when speaking to Sky Sports UK. “I was feeling good until then. I would rather have this and find the limits than not push at all.
“Annoying. I would have liked to get some high-fuel laps in, especially on these tires that are a softer compound compared to last year but it is what it is and I’ll have to make up for it. The track is very different to last year, it is quicker, and it is a softer compound which we don’t use that often – we use it at Monaco, Imola… so I am certainly behind on the learnings.”
Ferrari threat to McLaren?
Teammate and championship leader Oscar Piastri failed to make the top 10 in the second session after a wall strike of his own and although that scuppered his qualifying simulation, he didn’t suffer from lasting damage.
“A scrappy session from my side and indeed from Oscar’s side,” added Norris. “He seemed to be struggling a little bit with the car as well. So we will see what we can make up for tomorrow.”
The second session was topped by Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Charles Leclerc, who has been on pole position at each race in the Azeri capital since 2021.
Mercedes pair George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were next ahead of Haas’ Oliver Bearman with Max Verstappen only sixth for Red Bull. But Norris is fearful of the threat posed by the Italian Grand Prix winner as well as the Ferrari duo.
“Certainly, [Ferrari] were easily the quickest here last year even though Oscar won,” he explained. “So Ferrari will be quick, Red Bull are going to be quick. They are never quick on Friday but then they go to sleep and wake up and are just quick again. So I expect a challenge from at least three other cars.”
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