Bahrain International Circuit, Thursday 10 March

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, and Executive Director, Racing, Andrea Stella after Day 1 of the pre-season test.

Key facts

Drivers	Lando Norris
Laps/km/miles	50/271km/168 miles
Best laptime	1m35.356s (6th)

LANDO NORRIS, #4

“A tough day with a few problems, which set us back a lot of laps meaning we couldn’t do the long runs. We still maximised today as much as we could and as much as what the issues allowed us to do. Hopefully the next few days, we can make up for that – we just have to change the programme around a little bit in how we’re trying to understand the car. It’s tricky because it’s a very different circuit: a lot bumpier; a lot hotter. Cars are getting pushed to a very different limit to the past week of testing in Barcelona. There’re many things for us to understand and we’ll keep learning over the next couple of days.”

ANDREA STELLA, Executive Director, Racing

“It has been a busy first day at the Bahrain International Circuit. We spent most of the morning investigating brake cooling configurations, with a methodical step-by-step approach that delivered the required information, preparing us for the rest of the test and the Bahrain Grand Prix next week. In the afternoon, we spent time developing the set-up of the car. That was very useful, and we found good directions. A tough but fruitful day overall. We’re all hoping Daniel is feeling better tomorrow.”

Today's official testing times

1	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:33.902s	103 laps
2	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:34.359s	52 laps
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:34.531s	64 laps
4	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:34.736s	50 laps
5	Alex Albon	Williams	1:35.070s	104 laps
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:35.356s	50 laps
7	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1:35.495s	66 laps
8	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1:35.706s	39 laps
9	George Russell	Mercedes	1:35.706s	60 laps
10	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:35.977s	23 laps
11	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:36.365s	62 laps
12	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1:36.745s	24 laps
13	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:36.768s	42 laps
14	Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	1:37.164s	54 laps
15	Pietro Fittipaldi	Alfa Romeo	1:37.422s	47 laps

Test dates

Three days (Thursday 10 - Saturday 12 March 2022). 

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