Norris 'on the right track' after topping Saudi Arabia practice

Lando Norris says he is "on the right track" in Saudi Arabia, after setting the pace in Friday's second practice session.

Pierre Gasly had surprisingly topped the first practice in Jeddah, with Norris finishing second.

McLaren reasserted their dominance in the second session though, with Norris finished 0.163 seconds faster than team-mate Oscar Piastri, who won in Bahrain last weekend.

However, the session was disrupted towards the end when Yuki Tsunoda hit the inside and outside walls at the final corner with nine minutes remaining.

Despite that, he finished sixth fastest, behind Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, though he leaves Red Bull with a lot of work to do on the car ahead of Saturday.

McLaren have scored points in each of the last 42 Grand Prix races in Formula 1, and they remain the standout, having finished fastest after the second practice for the third race weekend in a row.

And Norris, who has been vocal about his struggles with the car despite leading the drivers' championship, believes he is starting to get to grips with it.

"A pretty decent first day. Always feels chaotic around here because it's so fast, a lot of walls, a lot of near-misses," Norris said.

FP2 = complete A productive Friday on track in Jeddah 🇸🇦#McLaren | #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/EUcytY1edE
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) April 18, 2025

"It has been a day of working on myself and my driving, more than probably working on the car. Getting more confident.

"A good start, productive, gaining confidence, gaining feeling. From what I wanted to learn, on the right track.

"At the minute, I would say we feel confident, but the others are not far behind. I was probably hoping we got a bigger gap than we had. We know we're fast. We know we have a great car. Not as comfortable as we would like."

Verstappen, meanwhile, was not as pleased following the session despite finishing third.

The Dutchman is the only driver with repeat victories at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (2022 and 2024), and the only driver to have finished on the podium in each of the four races held in Jeddah.

However, he was lagging behind Ferrari and Mercedes on race pace in both the first and second sessions, something he is keen to improve on if he wants to keep pace with the McLarens in the drivers' championship.

"We tried some different things, trying to find maybe a different direction, and we learned a lot from it," the four-time champion said.

"Still not where I wanted to be. I don't really look at the gaps, you have to go from what you feel in the car. Over one lap, it is a bit better, but the long runs were very tough still for us."