F1 News

McLaren drivers look back at first Bahrain practice day

Will McLaren be competitive again this season? 'Standing where we expect'

1 March at 09:26
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  • Matt Gretton
  • Editor-in-Chief

At the end of 2023, McLaren were the closest to Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing. In his rookie year, Oscar Piastri was one of the few drivers to battle with Red Bull. Whether Piastri and Lando Norris can do the same in 2024 remains to be seen.

Norris: 'Good start to the weekend'

Norris was number two on the timesheet in the first free practice, but finished the final free practice at the very bottom. "It’s been a reasonable day. I’m happy with how Thursday went overall. We made some progress with the car, there are still plenty of things to improve on, but we improved the balance and I got more comfortable, which is a good thing."

"I didn’t do a great job in putting a lap together, so it wasn’t a very representative day on the timesheets, but overall, a good first day and a good start to the weekend," Norris said.

Piastri happy with Thursday in Bahrain

Piastri finished third in the first free practice session of the season, and fifth in the second practice session. After the second practice session, the Australian explained his findings. "It was a good session. I felt like we were pretty competitive in both low and high fuel running. It’ll be interesting to see what we’re like tomorrow, but I think it was a pretty solid day overall."

"I was happy with my driving, and we got some good information out of the session. It will be interesting to see what the grid is like when all the sandbags are gone, but I think we’re about where we expected to be and we’re in a good place going into tomorrow," he explained.