Lando Norris was overall pleased with a “decent” day on Friday following practice, but revealed that a lack of spare parts was the reason his running was cut short after an error during the second session.
Norris clocked 24 laps in FP1 as he went seventh fastest, two positions and almost half a second clear of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, but he had only done six tours of the circuit in FP2 before he ran wide at Turn Nine and caused some damage to the floor.
In a bid to ensure that no one else was able to get a look at the crucial underside of the McLaren, the mechanics wrapped up the floor and discretely carried it out of the garage, and the 22-year-old was unable to take to the track for the remainder of the day.
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“I just ran wide over the exit kerb of Turn 9 and damaged the car,” Norris said after practice on Friday.
“I guess we’re quite limited on new parts so we wanted to make sure we saved them and didn’t do any further damage. It was just a misjudgement from my side, as simple as that.”
However, the overall performance of the Woking team looked relatively promising in Spain on day one, so the Briton has few complaints.
“Apart from that, it has been a decent day. The car has been in a relatively good place but it looks like everyone is in a good place as well,” he explained.
“I’m happy, it’s just trying to find the last little bits and putting it all together.”
McLaren performed well during the first pre-season test in Spain in February, and this weekend is a good opportunity for the teams to cross reference their data, and Norris confirmed that the team have not found anything too surprising so far.
“Most things have been working as expected, or as we have wanted them to,” he added.
“I don’t think anything has been acting funny or different to expectations, so positive.
“We had them on both Daniel and my car for FP2, so good. We’ll go through the data, make sure we understand it all and we’re maximising the package for tomorrow.
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“Today there were a lot of sensors on the car to make sure we understood everything and it was working properly. There is still a little bit more to come once we have understood everything.”
Norris’ podium in Imola was followed by a non-finish in Miami after contact with Pierre Gasly, leaving him seventh in the Drivers’ Championship.