Lando Norris secured pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, but behind that success, he revealed the significant impact of losing valuable track time in FP2 due to a gearbox change. The McLaren driver had to work extra hard to catch up, especially since Madring is a new circuit for him.
On Friday, Norris and McLaren did not start the weekend smoothly. In FP1, they were a full second off the pace, showing that the MCL40 was still struggling to adapt to the Madring's characteristics. Disaster struck in FP2: a downshift issue forced the team to change the gearbox, causing Norris to miss almost the entire session. Nevertheless, he bounced back on Saturday with a stunning lap in the dying seconds of Q3 to snatch pole position.
In the post-qualifying press conference, Norris detailed what was lost when he missed FP2. "You just lose laps, and it's not like you get a lot of laps in general, especially in lower fuel qualifying style runs," he said. "So obviously I lost them, I also lost that little indication of what the degradation will be like tomorrow, like they both [Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen] alluded to, this chance of high degradation, so that's when you want certainly a little bit of a feeling of how it degrades, what corners to really save, all of those little things."
Norris also highlighted the setup uncertainty he had to face. "You lose a little bit in terms of setup, like you don't really know what direction to go," he added. "We went in a direction for FP2, didn't really end up knowing if it was better or worse or do we need to do more of what we want to do, so it just left a lot of question marks for today."
Missing the practice session also meant Norris couldn't feel the details of the new track such as bumps and braking points. "From a driver's point of view, especially around a new track, just little subtleties of where the bumps are and when you put on a new set of tyres, where can you really get on throttle a bit more aggressively, how do you have to take the curves in the chicane," he explained. "So it's just timing, timing of things you lose as a driver and then yeah, it's easy to put too much pressure on yourself in FP3 to try and re-catch up and take too many risks."
Despite the challenges, Norris appeared relaxed and pleased with his lap. He acknowledged that losing experience on a new track can hurt a lot, but he felt he did a pretty good job on the other side. Now, his focus shifts to the race, where he must rely on quick adaptation and instinct to handle the predicted high tyre degradation.
With pole position in hand, Norris has the ideal starting position to chase victory. However, without FP2 data, race strategy will be a puzzle to be solved lap by lap. Will he be able to maintain his position? We'll find out on track.
Baca Juga
Andrea Kimi Antonelli memprediksi degradasi ban jadi tantangan terbesar di GP Spanyol di sirkuit jalanan Madrid. Overtaking juga diprediksi sulit.
Lando Norris mengungkap dampak kehilangan FP2 di GP Spanyol akibat masalah gearbox. Meski begitu, ia sukses meraih pole position di Madring.
George Russell gagal di Q3 F1 Spanyol, start keenam. Rekan setimnya Antonelli kedua. Simak penyebab dan dampaknya bagi klasemen.
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