Norris shifts focus to Sunday for FP3 ahead of Italian Grand Prix grid penalty

Ahead of Free Practice 3 on Saturday morning, McLaren rookie Lando Norris has stated he is already shifting his focus on Sunday's race rather than qualifying, as the young Brit will start at the back of the grid anyway because of grid penalties.

A new power unit in the back of his MCL34 means Norris has exceeded the annual allocation of engines, with the penalty of starting from the back of the grid. With this, qualifying will be largely irrelevant for the teenager, as he will use FP3 to get his race pace as good as it can be ahead of a comeback race on Sunday at Monza.

When asked how much he'll run during qualifying, Norris said he'd mainly be helping out teammate Carlos Sainz if necessary, as the Spaniard doesn't have any penalties.

“Tomorrow I’ll probably be doing Q1, help Carlos if I need to [with a tow], but probably nothing more than that,” he told Formula1.com.

“I don’t know if I need to out-qualify anyone still who also has penalties – I don’t really know the rules for that – but [the aim is] just to get a good feeling in FP3, on high fuel, which can set me up well for Sunday.”