Lando Norris said McLaren are “not getting ahead of ourselves” despite setting the second-fastest time in Friday practice at the Belgian Grand Prix, insisting he is still not happy with a car he described as difficult to drive. Norris said: "FP1 not great, to be honest – FP2 a little bit happier. I'm still not very happy with the car – it's still very, very difficult to drive, but we seemed a bit closer. But, yeah, we're certainly not getting ahead of ourselves. I think we shouldn't expect anything different from normal."




Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari are “lacking a little bit” in the middle sector after Friday practice for the Belgian Grand Prix, but believes the team can find improvements overnight. Hamilton said: "The others look really strong. Obviously Red Bull look really strong. Mercedes picked up a lot of pace in the sessions. McLaren were looking good as well so I really don't know. As I said, the car feels pretty decent but we're lacking a little bit in the middle sector for some reason. We're just looking into why that is and see if we can pick that up tomorrow."


Red Bull expects to reintroduce its “Macarena” rear wing at next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix after tracing the recent failures to a mechanical problem and working on fixes at its Milton Keynes factory. Technical director Pierre Wache said the team is making parts of the wing “stronger” and will not run it again until it is “bulletproof” and “100% sure”, adding: “It should be ready for Budapest.” Red Bull removed the wing for this weekend in Belgium after crashes for Max Verstappen at Silverstone and in Austrian GP qualifying, and amid FIA checks on the safety of the concept. Ferrari has continued with its own version, with Fred Vasseur saying: “So far we did 10,000km without any issue.”


Pierre Gasly said a “huge snap” caused him to lose control of his Alpine and crash out of second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. Gasly said: "I just need to work on understanding what happened in P2, just had a big snap, lost the car. But yeah, it was a huge snap and by the time it recovered, I was already off the track and I could not get back on track."

Kimi Antonelli says Mercedes still have “a lot of work to do” despite topping Friday practice ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. Antonelli said: "We made big changes with the car and it was a lot better, so that's a good direction. Of course, there's still a lot of work to do as a team and as well with my driving. Was a much better session and now looking forward to tomorrow."

Max Verstappen said Red Bull had a “good day” in Friday practice at the Belgian Grand Prix but that the second session showed the likely gap to their rivals. Verstappen said: "Pretty decent, I think. The balance is there straight away – just fine tuning a little bit with the car, which hopefully unlocks a little bit more pace. Honestly, I think from what we have as a package, it's been a good day... I'm not sure how much more there is in there compared to the others... In the second practice you see a little bit more what the real gap is probably."


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