Lando Norris expects a stronger menace from Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix after the opening day of observe on the Purple Bull Ring.
The McLaren driver set the tempo in second observe regardless of lacking the primary session. The crew’s reserve driver Alex Dunne drove his automobile within the opening hour of working.
Dunne “gave good suggestions” after his first run in observe, mentioned Norris, and the crew “moved the automobile in the suitable path” for the afternoon session. He set the quickest time with three tenths of a second in hand over Verstappen, whereas Oscar Piastri break up the pair within the different McLaren.
However Norris suspects Purple Bull haven’t revealed as a lot of their tempo as McLaren have up to now this weekend.
“As a crew we appeared a bit extra aggressive,” he mentioned. “I believe we positively didn’t look that good this morning so I believe that we did transfer issues in the suitable path.
“As all the time, the place we’re very fast in FP2 at occasions, we’ve proven a bit extra tempo than among the others so I actually assume they’re going to catch up. Max will not be far behind they usually usually enhance quite a bit into Saturday.”
He mentioned McLaren’s tempo on Friday made their state of affairs look stronger than it’s. “I count on a very good day tomorrow and I’m certain we’ll enhance on some issues however it’s not as straightforward as possibly it regarded right this moment,” he mentioned.
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“I believe it’s nonetheless going to be tight tomorrow. It all the time is, there’s no purpose for it to not be. However we’ll work arduous to make it as large of a spot as doable.”
McLaren introduced a number of new components for his or her automobile this weekend however Norris mentioned it wasn’t instantly clear in the event that they’d had the specified impact.
“We’re doing totally different exams between vehicles, as all the time when we have now new components on the automobile,” he defined. “I’m certain issues have all moved in the suitable path, how a lot and the amount of issues is difficult to know, however I’ll see with the crew later.”
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