Norris shuts down theory over McLaren F1 form

Lando Norris has denied that McLaren has a car that can be considered the “best everywhere” following a difficult opening day of running in Baku.

Norris' fastest lap time attempt during FP2 was disrupted by a slow-moving Pierre Gasly in the high-speed final sector, leaving him 17th in the order.

Team-mate Oscar Piastri who was fifth in the classification and half a second down on pace-setter Charles Leclerc, reflected McLaren's realistic performance window, according to Norris.

Despite its strong run of results of late that has seen it narrow the gap to Red Bull to eight points in the constructors' championship, Norris hit back at the perception that the team is fast in all conditions. 

“There’s been plenty of circuits where we’ve not been quick,” Norris said. “People just love to believe we’re the best everywhere. We’re not.

“We’ve been doing a good job so far and other teams haven’t. We’ve known in the past, Ferrari is very quick here. With these track conditions, Mercedes is going to be very quick.”

With the low-grip conditions in Baku not suiting the strengths of McLaren's package, Norris hinted it should not be considered favourites ahead of qualifying and the race.

“It’s just very slide-y out there,” he said. “We perform well in the higher grip circuits, naturally. The track is way off [being] close to where we were last year. Just finding it difficult at the minute but we’ll work hard.

“The car is still not bad. I’m sure we can still get a lap time out of it. But we’re not as clearly ahead as we have been at other races.”