Yas Marina Circuit, Friday, 24 November

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and Team Principal Andrea Stella after practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

FP2

1m24.852s (+0.043s)

18 laps

2nd

"It was a messy day on track with the Red and Yellow Flags, but I think we made the most of the time we had today. We got some good laps in. I got comfortable quickly in FP2, which I was happy with. Obviously, I didn’t get a high-fuel or consistent running in my session, so maybe I’m a little bit behind on some areas but we can look at those in the data tonight. Overall, I’m confident I can find it for a positive session in qualifying.”

FP1	1m26.665s(+0.593s)	25 laps	6th
FP2	1m25.361s(+0.552s)	18 laps	10th

“It felt good out there, the car’s looking competitive which is a pleasing start to the weekend. There were a few mistakes to tidy-up but overall, I feel like we’re in a competitive place. We’ll work hard with the data and see what we can do tomorrow on track.”

Pato O'Ward

FP1

1m27.114s (+1.042s)

23 laps

15th

“After FP1 I was just wishing I could be in the car for FP2! It was a smooth session. We were able to work through our run plan and complete all the laps we intended. I think from my side, there’s still quite a lot of lap time to come from me, so I’m very excited to be back in the car on Tuesday for the test, where I hope to get to know the car better and keep on improving. Until then, I’ll be trying to help the team have a good Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.”

“Overall, it’s been a productive day, even if the sessions have been largely affected by Red Flags, and so the time available has been significantly restricted. However, we were able to look at the behaviour of the tyres, and we have good data to analyse in order to maximise the performance of the car. So far it looks like we are more competitive than we were in Las Vegas, but the field looks once again very compressed.

“I would also like to say ‘well done’ to Pato who ran a solid free practice 1 session for us today. He worked through his performance run, consecutive laps and procedures with no issues at all, and we are very happy with the work he completed ahead of Lando returning to the car this evening.”