2021 Dutch Grand Prix – Free Practice "A decent day but work to do overnight"

Zandvoort, Friday 3 September

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after practice for the Dutch Grand Prix.

LANDO NORRIS, #4

 FP1 1m12.679s (+1.179s)  18 laps  11th 
 FP2  1m11.488s (+0.586s)  27 laps  8th 

“A tough first day. It was tricky with the traffic and difficult to get laps in with the red flags and stoppages. It began with a good feeling with the car, and we weren’t too bad, but we’ve got some work to do to be able to consistently get good laps in during qualifying, which I’m sure we can do. A decent day but work to do overnight.”

Dutch Grand Prix Circuit Park Zandvoort

Zandvoort
Zandvoort
Zandvoort
Zandvoort

DANIEL RICCIARDO, #3

 FP1 1m13.081s (+1.581s)  18 laps  14th 
 FP2  1m12.157s (+1.255s)  25 laps  15th 

“This track’s cool, it’s a lot of fun! I definitely enjoyed that. This morning I was relatively comfortable, this afternoon not so. We tried some things on the car that, in hindsight, I don’t think were the right direction. But, that’s what free practice is for. It made FP2 a little more tricky, but we’ll go back and learn from that. I think we’ll still be in good shape tomorrow, but today we were just a little bit off in FP2. There are some quick cars out there, so we’ve got our work cut out for us, but it’s a fun track and I’m really enjoying it.”

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ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing

“It’s very nice to be here in Zandvoort for the first time with modern F1 cars. We’ve discovered a very interesting circuit with some special features – the banking is like nothing we experience elsewhere on the current calendar and presents interesting challenges for the drivers who can adopt a variety of lines. We expect qualifying tomorrow to prove crucial because overtaking on Sunday is going to be difficult.

“Today’s sessions were disrupted by red flags, which meant we acquired less data than we ideally wouldve liked in order to prepare for tomorrow. We did, however, gain enough knowledge of the circuit to ensure we have a very busy evening studying what weve learned, putting in place everything we need for a competitive performance in qualifying and for the race, which may be eventful at this ‘old school’ track.”

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