17/03/2021
NEWS STORY
Lando Norris asks Japanese rookie, Yuki Tsunoda, "how's the DRS?" as AlphaTauri star gives Max Verstappen a run for his money.
At one stage on Sunday, Japanese hot-shot, Yuki Tsunoda was trading fastest times with 'veteran' Max Verstappen, the pair eventually separated by just 0.093s and over half-a-second clear of their nearest rivals.
As the paddock lauded the arrival of a new superstar, Lando Norris was quick to jokingly pour cold water on Tsunoda's parade.
"How's the DRS?" he asked his rival on Instagram along with a laughing emoji.
""He's a good driver, I don't think there's any shock with it," the McLaren driver subsequently explained.
"The AlphaTauri is looking strong," he added. "I think, looking at on-boards and seeing the data that we can see, they look like they have a very strong car. It looks very nice to drive. Good in all kind of conditions.
"They look like they've just had a clean few days, they've looked good in every run they've done, the long runs as well when everyone knows they're just going to be at high fuel, and so on. They look strong."
Indeed, along with fellow Alpha - Romeo - the Faenza outfit completed the most laps, 422 to 'sister' team Red Bull's 369.
"Today was a really, really good day," said the Japanese youngster at session end. "Good progress, no issues and I just focused on my driving... that's what I want to do.
"These two days we had a little bit of bad luck," he continued, "but today we put it all together and I think the mechanics and Honda did a really, really good job. There was no issue, and I was really comfortable to drive all day for the session. I achieved 91 laps and that was really, really good testing.
"I definitely enjoyed the C5, the softest tyre, big grip, and I never had experience like that grip," he said of his string of fastest laps.
While the use of DRS is limited to particular parts of the track on race day, during testing it can be used anywhere, and, as Norris suggests, the Japanese rookie took full advantage.