Norris sees McLaren "struggling with car" in Baku, but says 11th on grid is "decent"

McLaren was in Q2 with its two drivers this Saturday (11) in Azerbaijan GP qualifying. The 11th position of Lando Norris and the 12th position of Daniel Ricciardo, in the view of the papaya team, was indeed what they expected as a performance this weekend.

At least that is the view of Woking team boss Andreas Seidl. For him, being close to the points zone on a circuit like Baku can bring excellent results for the British team: "Sector 3 is very challenging for our car and it wasn't enough for us to get into Q3. But the focus now is on the race, it's a race with a history of excellent opportunities, so being close to the top-10 we have a good chance.

Norris, meanwhile, left upset about his starting grid position for Sunday, although being near the top-10 puts him with a good chance of scoring. "I attribute [11th position] to little mistakes I made, I didn't advance to Q3 by a very small difference, it was a little frustrating. I believe I didn't choose the ideal tire strategy in the last laps. Now the main job is to try to advance tomorrow, it's a decent position and we are not far from the points," said Lando.

Ricciardo tried to see positives in his performance in the Azerbaijan qualifying. For the Australian, the feeling was one of recovery in the pleasure of racing. "We had such a difficult weekend in Monaco that so far I'm satisfied so far, overall. I've found some things in this car that suit me, I've become a lot more comfortable."

Daniel knows that his starting position is still not ideal, but he is hoping for a comeback during the race that will be enough to score well for McLaren. "I was hoping to go a bit further, but now the work with the team is to review everything that has been done to get a good result here," Ricciardo added.

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