“They seem a lot more competitive this weekend” – Lando Norris fears Alpine

“This weekend they seem to be a lot more competitive” – ​​Lando Norris analyzed how Alpine McLaren is getting closer before the third race.

This year’s midfield competition seemed like an intense affair between the five teams – Alpine, McLaren, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Alpha Tauri.

However, only Ferrari and McLaren have had consistent results in the last two races, with Alpha Tauri doing well in patches. However, there is no sense of joy from Aston Martin and Alpine.

Alpine, who is now coming to Portugal, showed an incredible pace in FP2 when Fernando Alonso secured P5 and Esteban Ocon was one place behind. This resulted in Lando Norris treating Alpine as a threat and he is now concerned that he could lose in the third quarter on Saturday.

“The Alps were very fast today,” he told Sky Sports after the meeting. We know [Ferrari] are fast, so if they are ahead of us it’s no surprise, but we’ve usually had a big gap with the alpine region on the last two weekends.

“They appear to be a lot more competitive this weekend, which makes the chances of getting into the third quarter much more difficult. We could drive two more cars. It’s exciting, but yeah, it makes our lives a little bit harder, so it’s going to be difficult. “

Happy day in Portugal

At the last Grand Prix, Alonso fought in his car and ended up behind his teammate. But on Friday in Portugal he looked comfortable.

“It’s been a good day of practice for me and the most pleasant I’ve had this season compared to Bahrain and Imola,” he said. “I was happy with the car’s set-up pretty early in the day.”

“That’s why I mainly focused on getting used to the track and then evaluating the tires in the two sessions. We still have a lot of data to analyze, but it’s a good start to the weekend. “

“I enjoyed driving the track in a Formula 1 session for the first time, but I think the traffic could be a challenge in qualifying tomorrow. It’s an exciting circuit, that’s for sure. “