At the start of the midfield there was another tight battle over test time and, as somewhat to be expected, the Alps fell a bit, but Ferrari was still going strong now, while Pierre Gasly was also on top with the AlphaTauri.
McLaren finished eighth and tenth this time. Norris certainly wanted to finish sooner, but knows that their main rival, Ferrari, was simply faster than them, while his qualifications weren’t quite as smooth.
You can also hear on the radio that his race engineer was calling him in the box most likely due to some malfunction. After the timer, Norris said he could only run a quick lap in the third quarter because he had trouble saving fuel.
“Gasoline didn’t work properly in the car, so I didn’t have enough fuel, which was obviously a problem. That’s why I couldn’t try again, but the first screw was still good so it didn’t cost that much, but of course I was lucky some thing.”
While McLaren had a wind problem, the Ferraris made better music and were able to perform in front of them: Carlos Sainz was fifth, while Charles Leclerc was seventh. Norris was a little surprised that they couldn’t get close to them.
“I thought it would be tighter, but of course there’s no doubt that we were expecting ourselves too much in front of them or anything. A lot of people think our car is the best, it’s still slow on the straight, although that’s not the case.” It didn’t surprise us that they were fast, they were the best in some corners.”
“They gain a lot of time against us while not losing a lot in the straights. They are where they need to be because they have a competitive car.” The only driver to finish all races in points this year so far also made it clear that his car’s balance wasn’t bad, just a lack of traction and rear stability.
“It went on a good lap, not perfect, but it’s good, we weren’t fast enough, so we need more grip, more defenses, but how we can achieve that is still in question. Norris can now be confident that the Ferraris will fall back.” On Sunday, as it happened in Baku.
Wolff is also pleased to have toughened the FIA rubber casing
Participation
Suspension
