5 tenths gap not enough for McLaren: "See where we can make improvements"

Andrea Stella, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have issued words of warning to rival teams, as despite McLaren's huge advantage, the three leaders are urging the papaya outfit to seek improvements ahead of qualifying.

Oscar Piastri set the timesheets a-blaze in FP2 and proved to be too quick for teammate Lando Norris, by 0.150s, leaving George Russell and Charles Leclerc behind by over 5 tenths. In a McLaren issued press release, the Australian assessed his first day of on track activity in Bahrain.

"Friday done. Pretty tricky conditions out there today, especially in FP1, but I think it’s been a good day overall. The pace looked strong in FP2,and we’ve learned a lot. We’ll have a look at what went well and what we can do better before turning our attention to Qualifying tomorrow afternoon."

Norris, is slighttly less upbeat ahead of the rest of the weekend, as he outlines various markers McLaren need to focus on ahead of qualifying on Saturday evening.

"A reasonable day for the team. Some tricky conditions, very different tothe test, so it’s about understanding the car in the heat. The team have worked hard all day, and we now have plenty of things to focus on tomorrow to make sure we’re in a strong position for Qualifying."

Stella not happy with 5 tenths gap

Andrea Stella, McLaren's team principal, much like his drivers, believes this is no time to be complacent, even with a half a second advantage over the rest of the field.

"We enjoyed a reasonable first day here in Bahrain, where we were able to complete our run plans as intended. This circuit offers an interesting challenge when it comes to tyre degradation, and we have gathered important data in this area," opens the Italian in the McLaren press release.

"While our FP2 times looked encouraging, we know we still have some work to do to convert this into a strong Qualifying position tomorrow, which in turn will be critical when it comes to giving us opportunities on Sunday. As always, we will analyse the data overnight, see where we can make improvements and put ourselves in the best possible position to fight during Qualifying," closed the Italian.