Lando Norris made thoughts clear on new team-mate replacing Oscar Piastri at Italian GP

Lando Norris has lavished praise on McLaren stablemate Alex Dunne, who will replace Oscar Piastri in first practice at the Italian Grand Prix. The Formula 2 star, a member of McLaren's Driver Development programme, will get behind the wheel of the championship leader's car at Monza on Friday afternoon.

It will be the Irishman's second stint in a McLaren at a Grand Prix weekend after he replaced Norris in FP1 at the Austrian GP in June. Throwing a young driver into the pressurised environment of an F1 weekend can be a baptism of fire. Kimi Antonelli, then an F2 driver, infamously crashed George Russell's Mercedes just 10 minutes into FP1 at this weekend's stop last year. However, Dunne took to his first session like a duck to water, impressing everyone in the paddock with his poise behind the wheel as he posted the fourth fastest time of the session.

After retaking his car from FP2, Norris went on to win the race ahead of Piastri. Afterwards, he praised Dunne's role in the weekend, joking that he should let the 19-year-old drive his car in every FP1 session.

The Brit said: "To be honest, I might give Alex my FP1 seat every time, because it seems he set up the car nicely for me this weekend!"

Speaking after Dunne's session, Norris had said: "I think the car felt good from the off [in FP2]. Alex gave good feedback this morning after FP1 and he was on the pace straight away. That was good to see, and I think they moved the car in the right direction for FP2."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was also impressed with Dunne's work in Austria, insisting there was more to his performance than pure speed. The Italian told Sky Sports F1: "First of all, before we look at the timing, I think we have to acknowledge that he has gone through a quite extensive plan of testing with some new parts, with some rake work, some adjustments on the steering wheel that we don't see on television, but definitely keeps the drivers very busy.

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"You have to be very precise, very much on time, because some of the settings need to happen in portions of the track. In all this, Alex has been quite diligent and impressive. And then he had also the chance to show some speed and, no surprise, he is a fast driver."

Stella did warn against reading too much into Dunne's pace. He added: "I think we need to be a bit careful looking at the lap times because his lap time came later on in the stint when the fuel was down.

"But I think encouraging and impressive in terms of Alex himself and also, I think, a good session for McLaren, so we look forward to the reminder of this event."

Monza will be a busy weekend for Dunne as he looks to keep his F2 title hopes alive. He is currently fifth in the standings but is just 30 points behind series leader Leonardo Fornaroli.

An F2 weekend consists of two races: a sprint race on Saturday and a feature race on Sunday. After Monza, there are three more race weekends, with F2 also supporting the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Qatar Grand Prix and the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.