Lando Norris drops his verdict on McLaren's prospects after a dominant start to F1 Austrian GP

Lando Norris feels positive after a dominant first day of running in the F1 Austrian GP. The driver had to sit out of FP1 as McLaren ran the team's prodigy, Alex Dunne, in his first run in an F1 car.

The British driver took over in the second session and appeared comfortable in the car from the get-go. The driver has been impressive around the Red Bull Ring in general and is 7-1 against his teammates in qualifying at this track. When he got the opportunity to do a qualifying simulation on the soft tires, he put together a lap that was around 3 tenths faster than any other non-McLaren driver.

Not only that, the driver was around 0.15 seconds quicker than his teammate Oscar Piastri as well. Lando Norris is coming to the F1 Austrian GP on the back of a disappointing race in Canada, where he crashed into his McLaren teammate, and hence this boost was important for him.

Talking to the media, including F1TV, the driver sounded confident as he said,

"I’ve always enjoyed this track. The car felt good right from the start. Alex gave solid feedback this morning after FP1 and was on pace straight away, which was encouraging to see."

He added,

“They definitely moved the car in the right direction for FP2. Now we just need to figure out if we want more of that tomorrow, less, or somewhere in between. So, it’s a good step forward, but hopefully there’s still a bit more to come.”

Lando Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri gives his feedback

Lando Norris' teammate, Oscar Piastri, also had a straightforward day, as the Australian was around a tenth and a half slower than the British driver on his qualifying simulation. The championship leader was more or less satisfied with how the day went, as he highlighted the potential threat of Max Verstappen, who was around a tenth of a second behind him. He said,

"Looked pretty good — Max [Verstappen] is still close, so I think he’ll definitely be a threat this weekend, but the car’s feeling good. I think the pace is quite good, so positive first day.”

When questioned about the upgrades, he said,

"There’s some other bits and pieces. “I’m not using the bits that came in [at] Canada because they’re not an upgrade — they’re just different."

While Lando Norris has begun the race weekend on the front foot, it would be interesting to see if he can continue to keep the momentum on Saturday and beat Oscar Piastri. The Brit is more than 20 points behind his teammate in the championship heading into the F1 Austrian GP, and the race could be pivotal in bouncing back from the clash in Montreal.

Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli