The Briton recovered from an early setback when he lost track time with an unplanned stop after reporting that something on his elbow “loosened” to surprisingly take second place on the soft tire runs.
Norris was just 0.257 seconds behind the benchmark time set by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to round off a positive afternoon for McLaren after finishing behind chief rivals Ferrari in FP1.
“It was like a good day in terms of results and pace, but it wasn’t that easy to get there,” said Norris.
“It’s difficult because of the wind and the bumps and the conditions, it just makes it very tricky out there.
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“Even with the set-up I struggled a lot for the first few runs, but in the last run I made some changes and I was much happier with the car and could push more and then the lap time got easier.
“I think we’re in a good place because I feel like we can easily make a few changes for tomorrow to give myself a little more confidence, and confidence is often the lap time. So a decent first day and I’m looking forward to the rest. “
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The bumpy surface of COTA and the high track temperatures made conditions difficult for the drivers, with Norris in FP2 getting away with a large lock in the last corner sequence.
When asked what caused his dramatic looking blockages, Norris replied, “It was just that I was an idiot braking on the curb, which you just never do.
“It’s not slippery – it’s just a curb, it’s a curb – I braked … Rule number one is: don’t brake on a curb, so I’m just stupid.”
And Norris expects tire wear to play an important role in Sunday’s race as high temperatures are forecast.
“It’s tough because there is just a lot of degradation and you can still be fast, but with a lot of degradation because everyone struggles with similar things, just because of the temperature and the track surface and so on,” he said of his long one runs.
“It’s not easy, you always want to set the same lap times and when you see that you are slowly losing weight, it doesn’t feel good, but sometimes it just is.
“So interesting and probably for a good race on Sunday – who can keep the tires in good condition.”
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