The McLaren driver finished just 0.217 seconds behind Charles Leclerc in FP2 at the Hungaroring, having finished fourth in Free Practice 1.
This has come after a weekend in which Lando Norris was 1.1 seconds from pole position in fifth, and finished the French GP race 52 seconds behind the winner in seventh.
However, despite their strong start to the Hungarian Grand Prix, Norris says this can largely be attributed to McLaren giving their power units more freedom on Fridays compared to the other teams.
Asked if he could challenge for pole position on Saturday, the Briton was clear in his reply to Sky F1 ‘s microphones: “No. I mean, it looks like we’re doing well and the car is in a good position.”
“It seems to suit the track characteristics a bit more, but we’re always a bit quicker in FP2 than we end up being when it really matters.”
“We cranked [the engine] up a bit more than the others to get a more realistic first reading of qualifying, which is what we got today.”
“But we know that everyone else, especially Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, usually picks up the pace a lot when Saturday comes around.”
“I think we’re good, I think we can say the car is in a reasonable position. We’re probably a little bit ahead of where we were at Paul Ricard.”
“But I’m not expecting to fight for pole or anything like that, just aim for a better position than we had [in France],” Norris explained.
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who fell 0.427s off Friday’s fastest time in fifth, echoed Norris ‘s comments and said he doesn’t think McLaren has taken “such a big step” from France. .
“I don’t know how the others worked, but I think we were competitive this morning,” Ricciardo said.
“Being competitive in both sessions I hope it means something. I don’t think we can fight for pole, I feel sorry for the fans. I’m not being pessimistic, just realistic.”
“I think it’s been a good day, we’ve certainly kicked off something good. Let’s see what happens tonight with the car.”
“I have no reason to say we can’t fight at the front tomorrow, but it’s only been a week since Le Castellet, you can’t change that much.”
“Maybe the track suits us better, but I’m sure we’ve made a step forward, but probably not that big,” concluded the Australian.
