Lando Norris (McLaren/6th) laments: “We’re miles behind”

Whilst the engine supplier has so far excelled at the Baku City Circuit, the Mercedes customer team McLaren is lagging behind. And further back than expected. Lando Norris finished sixth in the second practice session in Azerbaijan, but was almost 1.5 seconds behind George Russell (Mercedes) at the top. His team-mate Oscar Piastri finished just behind Norris in eighth place.

Speaking on Thursday evening about the Papaya team’s chances, Norris said: “On a track like this, it’s impossible to say. The lads say things are going well, and that’s the positive. The car feels good. We’re just miles behind in terms of pace.” So, positive feedback from the garage – it’s just that the results are disastrous when compared to the front-runners.

Mercedes’ dominance is surprising only in its scale

The 2025 World Champion: “We’re on a low-speed circuit here with a very long straight. As expected, Mercedes are faster than us in every slow corner and, as expected, also faster than us on the straights. I don’t think that’s a surprise. Perhaps it’s just the extent of it that is.” It had already been speculated that Mercedes would be out front in Baku. Just how far out front, however, came as a surprise.

Norris: “I said yesterday that I wasn’t expecting great results here. Of course, I hope to do better than expected. I don’t think there’ll be any surprises, but we’ll see what we can improve for tomorrow.”

In the first practice session, both McLarens had problems with the underbody. Norris couldn’t say exactly what the issue was, though. So it remains a mystery. He did lose a bit of track time in FP1 because of it, however. That’s been a recurring theme this season. At least the Briton noted: “I feel pretty confident in the car. The car feels pretty good. It doesn’t help, of course. Maybe I’m a few laps down, but I’ve got used to that by now.”