News Summary
- Lando Norris led first practice in São Paulo and finished second to Andrea Kimi Antonelli in FP2.
- Norris said McLaren’s revised wings and floor appeared to add lap time, with the team due to analyse the data overnight.
- Asked about his chances of pole, Norris said he expected a “very, very wet” Saturday at Interlagos.
Lando Norris said McLaren’s upgrades appeared to be working as intended after he finished Friday practice at Interlagos with a first and a second place. The team had brought changes to both wings and the floor, and Norris had warned before the weekend that the extra performance might come with a car that was even harder to drive.
After two sessions, his first impression was that McLaren had found some lap time and the car felt a little better.
“I think FP1 we seemed quite easily on the pace, FP2 maybe struggled a little bit more to match the Mercedes, but I think actually it’s been a pretty good start to the weekend and we’ve continued the trend that we had in Mexico, so I think all in all a positive day,” Norris told Craig Slater on Sky Sports F1.
Norris led FP1 with a 1:11.717, 0.082s ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli. He improved to a 1:11.016 in the afternoon, but Antonelli went 0.253s quicker for Mercedes. Norris held on to second by just 0.006s from Max Verstappen.
What McLaren’s upgrades changed at Interlagos
“Today was also a day where we’re kind of working through the upgrades and seeing if they’re working as they should and they are, so I think we seem to gain performance,” Norris said.
“Nothing’s changed too much from a driving point of view, it’s still tricky, but it’s maybe brought a little bit of lap time which is what we want.”
Norris said the engineers would go through the data overnight. His distinction was between parts designed to change the car’s balance and parts designed to generate more aerodynamic load. McLaren had brought the second kind to São Paulo, and the extra grip appeared to make the car feel a little more predictable even though its basic handling had changed very little.
“So today seemed a little bit more straightforward, so even though the upgrades are not performed to change the handling characteristics, they aim to just bring load and to bring grip,” he said.
“From that sometimes you get a bit of a difference in feeling and I think today was a slightly more positive feeling so that’s certainly a good start to the weekend.”
When Slater asked about his chances of pole, Norris turned to the Saturday weather forecast.
“Tomorrow’s going to be very, very wet. So, I would bring your rain jacket, cover for the camera and get a hat as well.”
GRANDE PRÊMIO is following every session of the São Paulo Grand Prix in Formula 1 live from Interlagos.
