It was a great start to Lando Norris‘ home Grand Prix, after ending the opening day at the Silverstone International Circuit in third-place.
After choosing to sit out the wet Free Practice One, Norris got to work in the dry afternoon session. The Brit set a best lap-time of a 1:29.118, putting him just shy of Lewis Hamilton in second and two-tenths behind Carlos Sainz Jr in first.
Despite a strong opening day, Norris complained of his car being difficult to drive. Strong winds caused problems for a number of drivers, something which is quite common around the British circuit.
The Brit thinks that on the whole the car is performing well, but that some “small improvements” can be made.
“A decent day, very tricky in the wind conditions we have here. It’s strong gusts at high speed, so the car is difficult to drive, changing every lap, it’s inconsistent. But it’s the same for everyone. From our side I think the car’s performing in a reasonable area, little bit better than maybe we were expecting, so hopefully that can continue into tomorrow. We can make a couple of changes and small improvements in a few areas and continue the pace we had today into tomorrow.”
“We struggled with the Softs quite a bit” – Daniel Ricciardo
Daniel Ricciardo also opted to sit the opening session out, running only in the second session. The Australian ended the day in ninth-place, just under a second behind the Scuderia Ferrari pacesetter.
Ricciardo performed well during his long-runs, however, struggled over one-lap pace. The Australian will be hoping that something can be found before Qualifying, with his team-mate in third.
Just like Norris, the Honey Badger believes that there is more pace in the car.
“This morning wasn’t busy, just because of the weather, so didn’t have much running. But then the afternoon session was better, and we got a lot of laps. Initially on the Hards it started well in terms of feel, and we got up to pace pretty well with that, however we struggled with the Softs quite a bit. To be in the top ten is positive, and looking where Lando is, is also positive. So, I think there’s certainly a lot more to get out of the car. I think we’re in a decent place, we’ll learn a bit from both cars, make a few little different set-up changes and have fun tomorrow.”
Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd