Baku shows it’s wrong to say McLaren are “the best everywhere”

Lando Norris said he’s struggling to get comfortable around the Baku City Circuit after the first day of practice for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver ended Friday’s opening day of running as only the 17th ranked driver. However his qualifying simulation was ruined by Pierre Gasly, whom he caught through the fast final two corners, forcing him to abandon his lap.

Norris was 1.3 seconds up on his best time of the day before abandoning that lap, indicating he was on course to set the fourth-fastest on the day, ahead of team mate Oscar Piastri in fifth. However Norris was not optimistic about his team’s potential after the opening day.

“We’re quite a long way off,” Norris told the official F1 channel after the session. “I’m having to push way too much to try and get a lap time out of it.

“Clearly, I think where Oscar was is kind of more where we are. So I think if we nail it, we’re just about there.

“But I’m sure they’re not even close to nailing it yet. So I think we have quite a lot to find, honestly. Compared to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, they’re all very similar and then there’s a good three, four tenth gap back to us. So a lot of work for us to do.”

McLaren have been the team to beat in recent rounds and Norris is Max Verstappen’s closest threat in the world championship. However, Norris says his is not surprised that the team do not appear to have the same level of performance in Azerbaijan.

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“There’s been plenty of circuits we’ve not been quick,” he said. “People just love to believe that we’re the best everywhere, but we’re not.

“We’ve been doing a very good job so far and I think other teams haven’t. We’ve been doing a better job than other teams.

“We always know that Ferrari are very quick here. I think with these kind of track conditions, Mercedes are going to be very quick. It’s just very slide-y out there. I think we perform well at the higher-grip circuits naturally. And the track is way off even close to where we were last year.

“I’m just finding it difficult at the minute. But we’ll work hard tonight. The car’s still not bad, I’m sure we can still get a lap time out of it, but we’re not as clearly ahead as we have been other races.”

Piastri, who was half a second slower than the best time of Charles Leclerc, appeared less concerned about McLaren’s pace than his team mate.

“I think it’s been a decent day,” Piastri said. “It’s a bit hard to know at the moment with the track evolving so much still. But our pace seems in the ballpark, I would say.

“Ferrari look pretty strong, Red Bull look quick – and Mercedes as well. So I think at the moment, anyone in the top four teams looks good. Our long run seemed quite competitive, which is good, but some people are putting down some big laps and if you hook it up, it really makes a big difference. So that’s going to be the name of the game tomorrow.”

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