McLaren’s Friday in Baku took a turn for the worse during Free Practice 2 as both drivers encountered setbacks — Lando Norris with a costly brush against the wall and Oscar Piastri with a post‑session reprimand for a yellow flag infringement.
What began as a weekend with promising pace in FP1 quickly unraveled in the afternoon session, leaving the Woking-based team on the back foot heading into Saturday.
Lando Norris
Norris topped the time sheets earlier in the day during Free Practice 1; however, in what he described as an “annoying” meeting with the wall in Turn 4, his session was compromised, leaving him frustrated about lost opportunities.
The MCL39 was pushing hard as it drifted wide exiting Turn 4 just moments after a close call at Turn 2. Eventually, the car made contact with the concrete barrier that ended Norris’ practice session prematurely at P10 as he radioed, “I’m in the wall, tyre’s gone.”
After the session, Norris expressed his dismay over not getting the most out of the softer Pirelli tyres introduced this weekend:
“A costly one, especially here,” Norris said after the session. “It was feeling good until then. I’d rather have this and push and find the limits than not find the limits at all, but it’s annoying. I would have liked to get some high fuel laps in, especially on these tyres, the softer compound compared to last year. But it is what it is, and I’ll have to make up for it.”
The newly introduced softer Pirelli tyres added complexity this weekend due to their limited usage in the calendar; the brief session left Norris feeling slightly compromised because of the shortage of long-run data.
Oscar Piastri
Championship leader and 2024 Baku race winner Oscar Piastri ended his FP2 session at P12 followed by a reprimand by the stewards for a yellow flag infringement; the Australian driver was first hampered by a power unit issue in FP1 that limited his laps around the Baku City Circuit.
That left him short on setup data heading into the second session, where things didn’t improve much. The driver had a faint brush with the wall at Turn 15, and while he avoided major damage, the team’s overall session became about damage control.
“A bit tricky, yeah,” Piastri shared with the print media pen post-session. “Just a bit up and down. I think the pace is there, it’s just not the easiest to get the most out of it at the moment.”
Furthermore, Piastri faced investigation for not slowing down adequately under yellow flags after Pierre Gasly’s incident at Turn 1, but the situation seemed more complicated.
Just after passing the marshal post (1.2), Piastri saw the yellow flag. Soon after, he encountered a green light at light panel 3; race control withdrew the yellow flag less than a second later, creating a very narrow window for the driver to respond appropriately.
In their report, the stewards recognized these “mitigating circumstances” and chose to issue a reprimand [his first of the season] instead of a time penalty or grid drop. The situation left the championship leader frustrated over how their session unfolded, citing the same reasons as his teammate regarding tyre changes.
With the softest compound Pirellis in play this weekend, like Norris, Piastri will head into FP3 under pressure to maximise every lap. After a clean and commanding run of form this season, Friday in Baku was a rare off day for the young Australian, though he remains optimistic the team can regroup.
