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The McLaren driver edged Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.217 seconds in FP2 at the Hungaroring, having also finished FP1 in the top five in fourth.
It follows a week after a French GP weekend in which Norris was 1.1 seconds off pole in fifth and finished the race 52 seconds behind in seventh.
But despite the strong start to its weekend in Hungary, Norris says that can largely be attributed to McLaren running its engines in a slightly higher setting than others on Fridays.
When asked if he could challenge for pole on Saturday, Norris told Sky F1: “No. I mean, things are going well, the car is well placed.
“It seems to suit that characteristic of the track a bit more, but we’re still a bit faster in FP2 than at the end. [up] being normally.
” We’re climbing [the engine] a bit more than others just to get our first reading of qualifying, which is what we got today.
“But we know everyone, especially Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes, normally they step up a lot tomorrow.
“I think we feel good, I think we can say the car is in a reasonable position. We are probably a bit ahead of what we were at Paul Ricard.
“But I don’t expect to fight for pole or anything, just aim for a better position than we were. [in France].”
Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who was just 0.427 seconds off the pace in fifth on Friday, echoed Norris’ comments and doesn’t think McLaren have taken “such a big step” towards where they were there. a week in France.
“I don’t know about the others, but I think we were competitive this morning as well,” Ricciardo said.
“So, yeah, being competitive in both sessions hopefully says we’re competitive.
“I don’t think we are competitive to fight for a pole, sorry for the fans. I’m not pessimistic, just realistic.
“But I think if there is something they will probably find a little more on Saturday at the critical moment.
“It was a good day, we certainly got off to a flying start. We’ll look at what’s going on tonight with the car and do a few bits for sure.
“But I don’t know, I also have no reason to say that we can’t fight for the front tomorrow.
“But it’s only been a week since Le Castellet, we can’t change much. Maybe the track suits us better, but I’m sure we took a step, but probably not such a big step.
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