Lando Norris has acknowledged that McLaren are “quite a long way off” during Friday’s practice sessions at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Norris, who trails title rival Max Verstappen by 62 points, noted that his team was 0.3-0.4 seconds slower than the leading contenders on the Baku circuit.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc clocked the fastest time, edging out Red Bull’s Sergio Perez by 0.006 seconds, with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes finishing third, 0.066 seconds behind Leclerc. Norris, who was 17th fastest, was hindered by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly during his fastest lap. He commented that team-mate Oscar Piastri’s fifth-place finish, 0.5 seconds off the pace, was “more where we are.”
Norris remarked, “If we nail it we are just about there,” but added, “I’m sure they are not even close to nailing it yet.” He acknowledged that McLaren has “quite a lot to find compared to Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari,” citing a 0.3-0.4 seconds gap to the leading teams. McLaren had indicated before the race weekend that they would focus their support on Norris and seek Piastri’s assistance if needed.
Norris needs to close an average of just under eight points per race to overtake Verstappen for the title, a gap he has been bridging in the last two races in the Netherlands and Italy. He also noted that the low-grip conditions in Baku were detrimental to McLaren’s performance. “We always know that Ferrari are very quick here,” he said. “With these track conditions Mercedes are going be very quick.” Norris expressed challenges with the current track conditions, stating, “The car is still not bad. I’m sure we can still get a lap time out of it but we are not as clearly ahead as we have been at other races.”
Despite his concerns, Norris’s lap was competitive with Leclerc’s fastest time until he encountered Gasly on the final straight. Piastri showed potential on a race-simulation run with heavy fuel later in the session.
Leclerc, who has been on pole in Baku for the past three years, experienced an incident-filled day. He crashed midway through the first session and encountered a technical issue at the start of the second session, which affected his running time. Initially, there were no issues visible on telemetry, but Leclerc reported the car felt “not straight” and needed to return to the pits. After the session, he clarified that the problem was unrelated to the crash but due to a new part causing a strange steering wheel sensation. “It was nothing to do with the crash, we just had a problem with one new part we had just put on the car,” Leclerc explained. “It is very tight but it is very difficult to see (the true competitive order) with different engine modes for everybody.”
Mercedes, having removed an updated floor from a previous race, appeared more competitive. Hamilton described his day as “good.” Red Bull also showed improvement with a new floor, despite Verstappen having a challenging weekend in Italy. Verstappen was fastest in the first session but faced understeer in the second session, including a near miss with the wall. He ended up 0.545 seconds off the pace but deemed the day positive, saying, “Overall a good day, we learned quite a bit, now it is just about tidying up the things we tried, so far we have been more competitive this weekend, so that’s positive.”
George Russell experienced a difficult session, with a delayed start due to an engine change and a subsequent sensor problem. He ended up ninth fastest, admitting struggles with both reliability and confidence, “I was definitely off the pace compared to Lewis, struggling with confidence in the car and trying to get the set-up in the right window.”
Oliver Bearman, filling in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen at Haas, finished 10th, two places and 0.072 seconds behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg.
