Norris says Monza field 'bit close for my liking'

Lando Norris finished second in the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, behind then McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo

Italian Grand Prix

Venue: Monza Dates: 5-7 September Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary of practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and Sports Extra 2 with race on BBC Radio 5 Live; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Lando Norris said the Formula 1 field was "a bit close for my liking" after setting the pace in Friday practice at the Italian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver needs to make inroads into team-mate Oscar Piastri's championship lead after dropping to 34 points behind the Australian with nine races remaining following a retirement in last weekend's Dutch Grand Prix, the first race after Formula 1's summer break.

Norris was 0.083 seconds ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in second place, ahead of Williams' Carlos Sainz, Piastri, the second Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

The Briton said: "I just need to make the gap a bit bigger to make things a bit more comfortable."

Norris and Piastri were among several drivers to have moments as they tested the limits at the high-speed and historic Monza circuit.

Norris had a big slide at the second chicane, known as Roggia, and Piastri had his own moment, running a little wide and kicking up the gravel at the second Lesmo.

The biggest incident involved Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, who brought out a red flag when he had a spin at the second Lesmo.

High-speed Monza is a different style of track from Zandvoort last weekend.

"This is the complete opposite downforce to Zandvoort," Norris said. "Zandvoort, we were easily quickest and it felt pretty amazing. Here is quite the opposite.

"Not a surprise, probably what we were expecting, but we don't perform quite to the same level in these low-downforce conditions as when we are at high-downforce.

"The competitors catch up and it looks a bit close and makes our life a bit trickier. But we're still in a reasonable place."

Piastri had an impressive day considering he missed first practice after handing his car over to Irish McLaren protege Alex Dunne.

Australian Piastri was just 0.181secs slower than Norris despite setting his best time on his second lap on the soft tyres, when they would be past their best, after making a small error and running slightly wide on his first attempt.

"Today has been a good day," Piastri said. "Not doing P1, I had a bit of catching up to do in P2. I feel like I hit the ground running.

"The car felt pretty good. I maybe got the set-up wrong on the softs and the second lap was pretty decent considering it was the second lap on the tyres."

In first practice, Hamilton led a Ferrari one-two, with Norris sixth, behind Sainz, Verstappen and Antonelli.

The seven-time champion, who has a five-place grid penalty for an infringement at the Dutch race, said his first experience of driving a Ferrari at Monza was "amazing, just the whole experience".

"To drive out the garage in a red car is all I ever thought it would be and more," he added.

"P1 was feeling really strong, P2 much more of a struggle but we made some changes and can go back on them. Better to have that in P2 than P3. I hope tomorrow we can be better.

"The McLarens are still very fast. It's not easy to overtake and I've got that penalty which is unfortunate but better to have it now than next year."

The surprise of the day was Sainz, in third place in both sessions.

The Spaniard said: "In terms of lap time and performance it looks like an encouraging day, we hit the ground running with a good set-up and balance which gave us decent lap times.

"In terms of confidence, not quite up there, I have been struggling a bit in Turn 11 and Seven to throw the car in and feel at home, the car feels quite different to a Ferrari around here.

"I just need to make sure I feel more comfortable on the first lap on softs."