McLaren is in the hunt for glory in Imola, says Piastri

McLaren displayed eye-catching tempo on the opening day at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, confirming their race-winning tempo from the earlier spherical in Miami.

Hot on the heels of his first grand prix victory, Lando Norris was desperate to proceed his spectacular type. The Briton seems very fast round the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, and was heading in the right direction to prime the second apply, however a mistake in the last section of the monitor pressured him to abort his lap. In the finish, he took solely twelfth in the second apply, however his place is not consultant resulting from his mistake.

Norris had a packed day as he not solely wanted to search out the optimum setup for his MCL38 round the old-school monitor of Imola, however he had aero rakes bolted onto his automotive in varied components of the classes as McLaren wished to collect additional knowledge on the Miami improve bundle.

“It’s been an affordable day, if slightly bit disrupted in locations. We had a check programme with some issues to attempt after our upgrades in Miami, which was essential to suit in. But at the similar time, we needed to take care of a few little points right here and there which made finishing our plan slightly bit extra difficult than we have been hoping for.

“However, the car felt good, I think we made some good improvements through the day and I was happy with that. Another few into tomorrow and I think we can have a good day,” added Norris.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri completed solely P9 in Free Practice 1, however a late qualifying simulation lap noticed the Australian finish the second session second simply fractionally behind the pace-setting Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

The former F2 and F3 champion solely obtained half of the improve bundle McLaren launched two weeks in the past in Florida, however he can now totally exploit the potential of the upgraded MCL38 this weekend in Imola.

“Friday done. I think it’s been one of our better Fridays and we seem to be in a pretty good place. It’s very tight out there so we’ll see what we can find for tomorrow, but it’s been an encouraging day. I’ve felt pretty comfy from the first lap this morning, so I’m excited for tomorrow. The team have done a good job with getting the remaining upgrades on my car, so thank you to them.”