Lando Norris delivers brutal McLaren verdict after Friday practice

Lando Norris stated McLaren endured its “worst Friday of the year” during two tricky practice sessions at the Canadian Grand Prix.

Norris ended the second practice outing in second place, narrowly missing out on the top spot to Mercedes' George Russell.

McLaren has been rapid at every event so far this year and heads both championships, leading it to enter each event with high expectations.

Despite his strong one-lap pace on Friday around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Norris stated McLaren ran into trouble getting its car into a comfortable window.

“I think we need to get the car in a better place,” Norris said. “It’s been our most difficult and everyone’s in the same boat on the track.

“The track’s difficult but it’s definitely been our worst Friday of the year, I would say so far – not worst in the pace, but most difficult to put together and most tricky. 

“We’re not miles away, just need to make it a little bit easier to drive.”

While the 25-year-old is confident he will be in contention throughout the weekend, he believes Mercedes currently holds the advantage following Russell's FP2-topping effort.

“I think we’re still in a good position, it’s just that it’s close – there’s all the teams up there,” he said. 

“Mercedes now seem very, very quick, just as they were last year here – they were quite easily the best last year. We expected them to be fast, they proved that today.

“But I’m complaining that I’m not first really! We’re still there or thereabouts, it’s just trying to simplify things a little bit, trying to make the car a bit easier to drive. 

“We’ll be there or thereabouts, at the minute I wouldn’t say we’re the quickest but you never know.”