McLaren reveal technical issue that hindered Norris in second Monaco practice

McLaren arrived in Monaco for a landmark weekend — their 1000th Grand Prix — but Friday's two free practice sessions offered little cause for celebration.

What began as a muted FP1 evolved into a far more challenging FP2, with Lando Norris sidelined early by an electrical shutdown and Oscar Piastri unable to extract the performance needed to challenge the front‑running teams. By the end of the day, McLaren found themselves adrift of Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, facing a significant overnight workload.

The team’s first session was steady but unspectacular. Both drivers struggled to produce representative laps: Piastri encountered traffic on his flying attempt, while Norris slid across the kerbs in the Swimming Pool complex. Their times — P6 for Norris and P8 for Piastri — flattered the underlying picture, with neither driver feeling fully connected to the MCL40 around Monaco’s unforgiving layout.

The afternoon session brought the day’s defining setback. Norris completed only a handful of laps before the car abruptly shut down at the Nouvelle Chicane, forcing him to park up and ending his session before he could run the Soft tyres.

His frustration was clear: “Tricky day. We're clearly off the pace and need to find time all across the lap. Frustrating to lose track time today, as that's always important here in Monaco. The car simply turned off, so we need to investigate what happened there.”

With no Soft‑tyre running and just eight laps completed, Norris faces a steep climb heading into FP3 and qualifying — the most crucial session of the Monaco weekend.

He added: “We'll work hard overnight to try and get more performance out of the car, but realistically it's going to be difficult to compete at the front of the field this weekend based on where we are compared to the competition.

"It’s not necessarily a surprise, but it’s not where we want to be, so we’ll work hard to understand what we’re missing and try to recover where we can for tomorrow.”

Piastri, meanwhile, managed a full session but not without drama. He brushed the walls on one of his flying laps and, although able to continue, could not unlock the pace needed to challenge the leaders. His 1:14.088 placed him seventh — respectable on paper, but nearly a second off the benchmark.

The Australian summarised the situation bluntly: “Today was certainly a tough day for the team. We're not where we want to be, and the gap to the front is larger than we had hoped for.

"We made some small steps forward between the first and second practice sessions, but we're still a second off the pace, which shows how much work we have to do.”

He emphasised the need for overnight analysis: “We need to go through the data and find some answers overnight because, as it stands, we are simply not quick enough.

"There's no single solution that will turn things around completely, but we will explore every option available to find performance and be in a more competitive position for the rest of the weekend.”

Chief Technical Officer Rob Marshall offered a detailed breakdown of McLaren’s difficulties, pointing to sector‑specific weaknesses and the need to understand tyre behaviour.

“We faced a couple of challenges today. On the performance side, we saw some promising signs in the second and third sectors, but we were struggling for pace in the opening part of the lap.”

He noted that the team must determine whether the deficit stems from setup or tyre temperature: “We have a few things to look at, whether it's related to tyre temperature or setup, to unlock more performance.

"We've brought some circuit-specific updates here, as you always do for Monaco, and we're confident in the fundamental package, but know there is work to do to put us in a more competitive position with the leading three teams this weekend.”

Marshall also confirmed the cause of Norris’s stoppage: “Lando's session was unfortunately cut short by an electrical fault which caused the car to shut down. The team is working hard to diagnose the root cause so we can ensure it doesn't happen again, and to make sure that the focus is on optimising everything for Qualifying.”