Formula 1: Lando Norris was the quickest on Day 1 at Barcelona: The young Brit driver, Lando Norris topped the timesheet on the first day of pre-season testing in Barcelona. He also thinks that the benchmark he set on Day 1 can be beaten easily. Ferrari’s driver Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished the day at P2 and P3. Follow F1 Updates on InsideSport.IN.
Lando Norris completed 103 laps in his new McLaren MCL36. Meanwhile, he also set the fastest time of 1m 19.568s beating the previous best time set by Charles Leclerc. Charles had set the time in the morning session. Despite having a great day at Barcelona, Norris played down any kind of expectations.
Formula 1: Lando Norris downplays topping Barcelona pre-season running, says ‘People will probably go much quicker than me’
Lando said, “I didn’t want to be P1, if anything I would rather be last. Because now expectations will be so high and everyone thinks we are incredible. But I think we were just on a different run plan to the other people. I think we will see in the next few days, people will probably go much quicker than what I did. It was still a good day, we learnt a lot of things, I learnt a lot of things.”
🗣 @LandoNorris: “It’s nice to have a change and it was a productive day. We learned a lot of things for the team, and we got all the information we wanted to.”
Hear more from Lando and Technical Director James Key after day one of #F1Testing. 👇
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) February 23, 2022
Having set the best time on Day 1 at Barcelona, there was some cause of concern for the McLaren team. It was Norris who stopped his car at the end of the pit lane as he was heading out for lunch. However, Norris was least worried about the issue.
The 22-year old driver added, “A couple of minutes and I was back on track again. You know, it’s early, it’s cold, fingers don’t work properly on the keyboards. No, it’s just the first day back at work, a couple of problems that’s all.”
Formula 1: Lando Norris downplays topping Barcelona pre-season running, says ‘People will probably go much quicker than me’
Norris gave his honest opinion on the brand new 2022 Formula 1 car and also said that the cars are not too different from last year. “I mean honestly, they’re not too different. Of course, people are expecting so many differences. There are definitely some bigger things, some smaller things, some more obvious than others.”
“It’s not like this car is going to go 20 seconds slower or 20 seconds faster. It’s going to be fairly similar on pace, or a bit slower because it’s still so early in development.”
“It’s still a Formula 1 car and it’s still going to go just as quick as last year. So, things can’t change that much but it’s just a feeling you have. The feelings in the brake pedal, under acceleration and steering, that are different from last year.”
“But not in a surprising way, a lot of it was just as expected, waiting to see what happens. But all good things, just trying to make progress for tomorrow.”
As the Day 2 start is coming closer, Daniel Ricciardo will take the wheel over from Norris. He is one of the five drivers who is yet to make an appearance on the track. The other drivers are Sergio Perez of Red Bull, Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, and Guanyu Zhou of Alfa Romeo. However, Lando will again be seen driving in the brand new MCL36 on Friday.
Formula 1: Lando Norris downplays topping Barcelona pre-season running, says ‘People will probably go much quicker than me’
