{"id":154991,"date":"2025-09-19T19:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/154991\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T19:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T19:22:07","slug":"lando-norris-makes-oscar-piastri-observation-after-scrappy-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/154991\/","title":{"rendered":"Lando Norris makes Oscar Piastri observation after ‘scrappy session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris\u2019 Free Practice 2 session came to a premature end at the Baku City Circuit when he drifted into the wall at Turn 4 and knocked his suspension out of alignment.<\/p>\n

Norris had to limp back to the pits \u2014 but he did find some small consolation in the fact that his McLaren teammate and title rival had his own issues with both the wall and with a power unit issue in FP1.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris laments \u2018scrappy\u2019 FP2 in Baku<\/p>\n

The Formula 1 circus has once again returned to the tight confines of Baku City Circuit, and the ever-present concrete barriers have already caused plenty of drama for drivers up and down the field.<\/p>\n

And that includes the McLaren Racing camp.<\/p>\n

While the duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris remain at the helm of the drivers\u2019 championship standings, and while the team is expected to lock up the constructors\u2019 title in the next two races, its Friday practice session was admittedly quite \u201cscrappy,\u201d according to Norris.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper into F1 ahead of the Azerbaijan GP:<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Eleven moments of Azerbaijan GP chaos as F1 returns to Baku<\/a><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc49\u00a0What\u2019s really behind F1\u2019s push for more Sprint races?<\/a><\/p>\n

In Free Practice 1, Oscar Piastri had a power unit issue that sidelined him for much of the session, thereby delaying his ability to find his footing. Then, come Free Practice 2, Piastri was reprimanded for a yellow-flag infringement and also collided with a concrete barrier.<\/p>\n

Norris, too, hit a barrier, and he sustained far more damage than his teammate.<\/p>\n

About halfway through FP2, Norris narrowly escaped a collision with the wall at Turn 2 only to end up kissing the barriers two corners later. The collision, largely confined to the rear of the car, knocked his McLaren out of alignment and forced him to crab-walk back to the pits for service.<\/p>\n

Speaking to media after the session, Norris admitted that the mistake was \u201ca costly one \u2014 especially here. It was feeling good until then.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he did grant that \u201cI\u2019d rather have this and push and find the limits than not push at all,\u201d he branded the collision \u201cannoying.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have liked to get some high fuel laps in, especially on these tyres, a softer compound compared to last year,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it is what it is, and I\u2019ll have to make up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed to share a little more about his concerns, Norris pinpointed the unique characteristics of the Baku City Circuit and its interplay with the soft tyre compound being used by Pirelli this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe track\u2019s very different to last year; it\u2019s quite a bit quicker, and it\u2019s a softer compound which we don\u2019t use that often. We use it in Monaco, Imola \u2014 I think that\u2019s it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean certainly I\u2019m behind on the learnings now, but a scrappy session, I guess, from my side.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was some consolation, though, in the fact that he wasn\u2019t the only member of his team to have a tough session.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think from Oscar\u2019s side, he seemed to be struggling a little bit with the car as well,\u201d Norris admitted. \u201cSo we\u2019ll see what we can make up for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British driver pinpointed Ferrari \u2014 the team that topped the timing charts in FP2 \u2014 as looking particularly strong at Baku, while Red Bull \u201care never good on Friday,\u00a0but then they go to sleep and they wake up and then they\u2019re just quick again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris and Piastri finished FP1 at the top of the timing charts despite Piastri\u2019s PU issue and a lengthy red flag, but both dropped off in FP2. Norris completed the second practice session with the 10th-quickest time, while his teammate finished 12th.<\/p>\n

Read next:\u00a0Ranked: Five of the most infamous team orders calls in F1 history<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris\u2019 Free Practice 2 session came to a premature end at the Baku City Circuit when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,54428,817,813,816,818,1737,913,44,85],"class_list":["post-154991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-azerbaijan-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-lando-norris","tag-mclaren","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}