Lando Norris Has "Nothing To Smile About" Despite Friday Dominance In Abu Dhabi

Lando Norris has insisted he has no reason to smile yet, despite dominating Friday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver enters the Formula 1 season finale 12 points ahead of nearest rival Max Verstappen, knowing that he needs only a podium finish if the Red Bull driver wins on Sunday.

But Norris got off to the best possible start at the Yas Marina Circuit by topping first practice by just 0.008s over the Dutchman before stretching the advantage to almost four-tenths in the more representative hour of running under the lights in FP2.

Norris 'wants more'

The duo had a close call at the start of the second session as Verstappen was fed inaccurate information from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that Norris was not starting a flying lap behind, leaving the four-time champion on the racing line on the exit of Turn 1 as the McLaren pressed on for a lap time.

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"What's this guy doing? I almost crashed," complained Norris, though both emerged unscathed and the stewards decided against investigating the incident.

Despite his margin at the end of the first day of running, Norris was coy on his chances for the weekend and insisted more was needed heading into Saturday.

"Obviously, from the times and everything, things are good at the minute," said Norris. "But I still want a bit more from the car — not completely happy or completely confident," the British driver said when reflecting on the day.

"We're a bit in the middle of trying some different things and then trying to understand some things with the car, so hopefully some more stuff we can get out of it overnight."

Norris has the destiny of the title in his own hands even after the disappointments of the last two race weekends in Las Vegas and Qatar, where a disqualification from second in the United States was followed by a strategic blunder that left him only fourth in Lusail, dropping valuable points.

Added to the confidence gained on Friday will be the fact that Norris won this race from pole position last year, and he will no doubt be hoping for a repeat performance to clinch his first world championship by the end of the grand prix.

"It's not been a bad day, for sure. It's been a positive day," he insisted. "But we always know it gets a lot closer going into qualifying, so nothing to smile about just yet."

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