Lando Norris ‘not felt comfortable' with McLaren F1 car despite topping timesheets

Lando Norris says he has “not felt comfortable” with his McLaren F1 car despite ending Friday practice at the Belgian Grand Prix with the fastest time.

Norris unleashed promising pace to spearhead a McLaren 1-2, two tenths clear of teammate and Hungarian Grand Prix winner Oscar Piastri, in second practice at Spa-Francorchamps on Friday.

Despite setting the pace, Norris admitted he does not feel entirely comfortable behind the wheel of his McLaren.

“Good, but still tough and close. Red Bull are quick, at the moment. It’s tricky,” Norris said.

“I have not felt comfortable today with the car. Hopefully I wake up tomorrow and feel more comfortable. We’ll try to improve a few things.

“I know it looks good on the timesheets but I didn’t feel super-comfortable going out and doing it. Hopefully I get in more of a rhythm out there.

“I don’t think it’s a lot. We always come to a circuit now, and be within millimetres of the margin straight away.

“It’s not like you ever really change the whole car overnight anymore. If you do, you’re not doing a good enough job before the weekend.

“We prepared well. We have a good set up. It’s working. Just from my side, feeling like I can go out and nail it? I’m not quite there yet.”

Norris ended up 0.217s faster than Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who will serve a 10-place grid drop for Sunday’s race after exceeding his allocation of power units for the season.

Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff said Verstappen’s penalty presents McLaren with a big opportunity to make it back-to-back wins.

"FP1 Max looked really, really quick - especially in sector two, although that's not really where you do your overtaking - but after this session I think McLaren will be slightly reassured that Max is controllable in terms of pace,” she said.

"They're just going to have to maximise that opening part of the first stint in the race. If the drivers work together, don't slow each other down, they can just open as much as a gap as they can so that Max can’t get back to them.

"So there is a huge opportunity in front of them - they've got to use it wisely."