McLaren delighted with performance after introducing the long-awaited floor

Having arrived with a heavily-upgraded floor, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella claims that the Woking-based outfit is “there or thereabouts” after the opening day at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Lando Norris sat out the opening practice as Pato O’Ward got behind his car in Free Practice 1. The Briton came back in for FP2 with a new floor to boot, and wound up fifth overall.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri finishes sixth in the opening practice before going second quickest in the second session. The Australian was delighted with the setup tweaks McLaren has carried out on his car between the two Friday sessions.

McLaren Racing’s IndyCar driver Patricio O’Ward set a time of 1m19.295s in the opening sixty-minute practice to finish in P13. The Mexican driver labelled his day as “fabulous”, praising the passionate crowd.

Speaking of McLaren’s practice day at Mexico City, team boss Andrea Stella insists that everything was in line with what the papaya outfit had expected beforehand.

“Today’s practice here in Mexico went according to plan, with Oscar and Pato at the wheel in FP1 and then Lando getting in the car for FP2. We tested all of the items we had planned, including the tyre test in FP2, aerodynamic components in FP1, and then Lando at the end had enough time to do a short Medium tyre run.

“It’s been a decent day, we seem to be there or thereabouts in terms of performance. At this track, however, there is always a lot to optimise which we will try to do overnight and tomorrow.

Commenting on O’Wards’ practice outing in FP1, the Italian added: “I would also like to congratulate Pato and say well done. He drove very, very well in FP1.

“He contributed a lot to our testing programme, and we were very encouraged with what we saw in terms of consistency and pace, even though we didn’t necessarily seek maximum performance due to the test items we needed to go through. We now shift our focus to our preparation for Qualifying and the race.”