Plus: What Ferrari can salvage from another tricky weekend, McLaren's bid to be best of the rest, and how Mercedes can get in the fight.
After coming back to Earth a tad in Belgium before the summer break, McLaren hit the ground running with Lando Norris on the front row once again and Oscar Piastri a bit further back, inP8.
No one can really compete against Red Bull at the moment, but a podium finish is up for grabs. Norris noted he’s “still more worried about the people behind than the car in front,” a nod towards Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. “I think we’re still pleasantly surprised by how competitive we’ve been,” Norris said. “A mixture of us taking a step forward and, you know, Aston taking, I would say, a step backward from where they were in the beginning of the season.
Albon’s pace was eye-catchingly competitive from the get-go, finishing in the top five in both of Friday’s practice sessions. He said Saturday, “The car felt good the first lap we drove in FP1, and normally when that happens, the others start to really chip away at it, get their car in their window. I just felt like, ‘Oh maybe we’ve hit our sweet spot early.’ We didn’t really play too much with the car since FP1, and it made me feel confident.
But the team’s pace begs the question: Is a double-points haul possible? It’ll take a clean race from Sargeant. Plus between wet or dry conditions, the rookie said he’d prefer the latter. It’s been a rough weekend so far for Ferrari. While Mercedes and McLaren look set to battle for best-of-the-rest honors, Ferrari has not once looked to be in that fight. Charles Leclerc was fortunate to make it through to Q1, complaining to his team about the run plan leaving him in traffic, and then crashed in Q3.
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