McLaren play down significance of dominant showing on opening day in Abu Dhabi

Having topped the timesheets in Free Practice 2 at Abu Dhabi, McLaren driver Lando Norris explained that he very much expects rival teams to turn up the music in qualifying despite his team’s dominant form on Friday.

McLaren looked on strong form on the first day of free practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Woking team drivers topped the time sheet in the second session, the most representative one as it took place at the same time as Sunday’s race, namely as the sun goes down.

Following his tough race in Qatar last week, Lando Norris was quickest in 1m23.517s ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri, which indicate that McLaren have the upper hand over Constructors’ title rivals Ferrari. Charles Leclerc was fastest in the first session in 1m24.321s, but in the second he was down in sixth in 1m24.201s, while team-mate Carlos Sainz was fourth in 1m24.099s. On top of that, Leclerc has a ten place grid penalty for having had to fit one more power unit component than allowed in the sporting regulations.

Reflecting on his experiences behind the wheel of his MCL38, Norris said that he expects the rival teams to raise their performance level in qualifying.

“A good first day in the car, things are feeling good but there’s some room to improve ahead of tomorrow’s Quali. I think we might have shown more performance than our competitors today.

“We won’t get ahead of ourselves, but we’ll stay focused to keep pushing as a team throughout the weekend,” concluded Norris.

His team-mate Oscar Piastri missed the first session as Ryo Hirakawa took over his car. However, he appeared to be comfortable in his MCL38, showing a consistent performance in the evening session.

“It was a good session for us today. I was comfortable in the car from the first lap and the pace was strong. I’m feeling in a good spot going into tomorrow, but the competition is also looking decent.

“Thank you to Ryo for his support in FP1 this morning and for giving us valuable data. We’ll continue to make tweaks overnight and ensure we continue with this momentum into tomorrow,” the Australian commented.

Assessing his day at the Yas Marina Circuit, Ryo Hirakawa has revealed that his run plan centred around assisting the Woking-based outfit in the development work. The Japanese drivers ended up 14th quickest, having racked up a total of 19 laps.

“Firstly, I want to say thank you to the team for the opportunity to drive in FP1. It was a great experience, and I really enjoyed being on track in the MCL38. I had lots of work to do supporting the team doing aero tests with the rakes, with some push laps at the end, which all went to plan.

“I appreciate the efforts of everyone who prepared me for this, from the time in the sim to the MCL36 tests. Best of luck to the entire team this weekend in the battle for the Constructors’ title.”

Reflecting on the day, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella echoed the sentiments of his drivers, claiming that the MCL38 has performed so far as the team had anticipated before the weekend.

“It’s been a decent start to this final race of the season, both sessions ran smoothly today. In the first session, Ryo Hirakawa drove Oscar’s car. There was work to do with test items and data acquisition, which he executed diligently and precisely.

“He has my thanks for his contribution to the team, and I’d also like to say well done. His performance run was impressive, both in terms of immediate pace, but also how well he assimilated feedback from his engineers. We wish him all the best.

“Otherwise, the car seems to be behaving pretty much as expected with the strengths and the weaknesses that we anticipated. We need to stay focused, and maximise our performance for the remainder of the weekend.”