Esteban Ocon, Alpine, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021

Norris concerned by threat from “very fast” Alpine pair in qualifying

2021 Portuguese Grand Prix

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Lando Norris says Alpine have taken a clear step forward at the Autodromo do Algarve and could jeopardise McLaren’s chances of reaching Q3.

Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon finished the second practice session fifth and sixth, while Norris could only manage 12th, four places behind team mate Daniel Ricciardo.

“The Renault, or Alpine, was very fast today,” Norris admitted after the session.

“We had a big gap to Alpine in the last two weekends, this weekend they seem a lot more competitive. So it makes the race or the the chance to get into Q3 a lot more difficult. There’s two more cars we might be racing.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Autodromo do Algarve, 2021
Norris said the track conditions were tricky on Friday
“So it’s exciting, but it makes our life a bit more tricky and a bit closer. So it’s going to be tough.”

Norris said the track conditions are “probably a little bit better than last year”, when the surface had been freshly laid, “but still very tricky. A lot of people making mistakes, myself included.”

Drivers found it took several laps to get the best performance out of their tyres. “It’s not easy to put it all together,” said Norris. “You don’t have like an obvious one lap where the tyres are good, they last two or three laps here.”

Having finished on the podium in the last race at Imola, Norris isn’t sure McLaren will be as quick this weekend.

“It’s different, it’s tricky. The car balance isn’t maybe quite as good as the past few weekends.

“So we definitely have a bit of work to be confident of being in the top 10. Which is important to get into Q3, so it’s a bit tougher than we expected, a bit tougher than we want. But we have overnight to try to make some improvements for qualifying.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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8 comments on “Norris concerned by threat from “very fast” Alpine pair in qualifying”

  1. What the hell is going on?

    1. Well, Alpine DID bring another update to the track. I guess it is doing what they wanted it to do, so they are faster than they were the last 2 races.

      1. They’ve been getting updates non stop.. They just haven’t been working or getting an environment to work (Imola).
        I wouldn’t read too much in to it though.. I don’t think there’s much room for improvements in their pace, while Mclaren and Alpha Tauri still do.

  2. QLF will show if Alpine’s pace is genuine. I doubt it’d be enough against Mclaren, Ferrari, and AT, or at least the former two.

    1. Yeah, I kind of think that Alpine might be running somewhat less fuel to be able to push with these new parts and show themselves some progress @jerejj, I expect them to be somewhat lower down the order come saturday /sunday afternoons

      1. @jerejj

        They might come in to this weekend as the 5th quickest team.. Slightly ahead of AT.. But their race pace isn’t as strong as quali pace..so probably scraping in to the points is the best they can manage

  3. It is odd that the wooden spoons of Imola are suddenly causing Norris to feel uneasy. Different circuits, yes, but can that account for all the improvement? Some outstanding dev work?
    Or are there shenanigans agoing on?

  4. The problem with these shortened practice sessions is that we’re getting a few teams focusing on glory runs while others are focusing on race pace at the expense of qualifying pace.

    We’re going to see races where some teams arrive with the wrong “pre set” settings and they may not be able to recover. I enjoy watching cars “evolve” over the 3 practice sessions but sadly we’re not going to see that as much because teams are expected to do that back at the factory now before they arrive.

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