McLaren finished the first day of testing on top thanks to Lando Norris’s excellent time in the afternoon. Further down, Oscar Piastri, who ran in the morning session, was behind.
Team principal Andrea Stella provides a clear snapshot of Day 1, sharing how the day evolved in the Woking team’s garage. “The team and the drivers did a great job on a busy day like this. We’re finishing the day with lots of information.”
“Oscar focused mainly on aerodynamic tests in the morning, and then we worked on our base setup with Lando Norris in the afternoon, making further changes. Today was colder than usual, and there was also some wind, which created a bit of difficulty for all the drivers around the track.”
The drivers’ words
As Stella pointed out, it was young Australian driver Oscar Piastri who got things started, taking on a range of reliability tests and then aerodynamic tests typical of the first test sessions. “The first day in the MCL39 went well. It was a productive morning for me, and we tried several different things. It was nice to get back on track. We still have many areas to explore in the next few days, to keep running the car and see how it behaves. All in all, though, it was a good day.” The Australian never pushed the car to its limits, and this is reflected in his final position, with a time of 1:32.084 in P17.
Lando Norris, on the other hand, took to the track in the evening session, where the drivers began pushing the cars harder, resulting in faster lap times. “It’s great to be back in the car! My compliments to the team for preparing everything for today. It was a nice, fun day on track, and we navigated through the multitude of tests we had to do. I’m looking forward to pushing the car even more in the next two days,” commented the young Briton. He set the best time of the day, with the clock stopping at 1:30.430. Here’s the full review of the first day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain circuit.
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