05/09/2025 20:20
Lando Norris light-heartedly mused that McLaren is usually one
second ahead of the competition at this stage of an F1 weekend,
after an unusually close Friday at Monza. The British driver
finished the first free practice session at the Italian Grand Prix
down in a relatively lowly sixth place, whilst team-mate and title
rival Oscar Piastri sat out the hour for Alex Dunne. Norris enjoyed
the upper hand on the F1 drivers' championship leader in FP2,
topping the session, with Piastri only fourth-fastest at the Temple
of Speed. However, the 25-year-old was only a tenth of a second
quicker than Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who ended the
session splitting the MCL39s. "Normally by this point we have like
a one-second gap on everyone," he joked before highlighting a
reality that should put McLaren on high alert. "But at the
moment... just a bit close for my liking at the minute," the
nine-time grand prix winner added. Norris trails Piastri by 34
points in the standings after his chassis-related retirement from
the Dutch Grand Prix. Whilst that issue has since been fixed by the
Woking-based squad, he needs to continue enjoying the advantage
over his team-mate, something he could not do at Zandvoort. "So,
yeah, not bad," Norris stated. "I feel like some small things to
improve, and for us to still be P1, I thought was was good. "I
thought we improved some stuff from FP1 to FP2, but yeah, just a
bit close. "So, I just need to try and make the gap a bit bigger,
so we're a little bit more comfortable."
