The last edition of the Belgian Grand Prix was the best that could be hoped for McLaren, on pole position with the future world champion Lando Norris and with the latter contributing to the Woking team’s one-two finish by coming 2nd behind Oscar Piastri. For this season, pole position will be practically impossible for #1, forced to serve a 10-place penalty for reliability issues with the electronic part of the Mercedes power unit.
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From problems in FP1 to FP2 behind Antonelli
Seventh in today’s FP1, the British driver was the only one to keep up with Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s gap in FP2, with a 2nd place that pushes the reigning champion and the team to focus on qualifying and the race: “A day of progress on track at Spa. The first session was not clean due to some problems that forced us to the pits, but we made positive steps forward with the car between FP1 and FP2. The pace on a single lap seems reasonable and now we are a bit more satisfied with the balance compared to this morning. However, we are not deluding ourselves. We have already seen this pattern on Fridays and we expect the main competitors to show more of their cards tomorrow. Our goal is to analyze the data overnight, see if we can make another step forward in tomorrow’s free practice, before tackling qualifying. We will see where we really are tomorrow and will continue to work hard to keep going in the right direction despite the frustration for the 10-place grid penalty on Sunday for using a fourth power electronics unit.”
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At McLaren, there were no shortage of problems for the cars of Norris and Piastri, both encountered in FP1. 5th in the first session, the Australian finished in sixth position in the last test, with #81 indicating what hindered his work during the day: “Overall, it was a decent day. Unfortunately, our entry onto the track in FP2 was delayed because the team worked to resolve the cause of the hydraulic leak that emerged at the end of FP1. We thank them for their commitment to solving the problem. However, we made good progress in FP2 and our pace seems reasonable. We are going in the right direction and are in a good position to consolidate these results in tomorrow’s FP3 and qualifying.”
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