Bahrain International Circuit, Saturday 25 February

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Team Principal Andrea Stella after Day 3 of the pre-season test.

Key facts

Laps/km/miles	37 (200 miles/321km)
Fastest lap	1m32.160s (11th)

“A decent three days here in Bahrain. First of all it's good to be back in a car. Second of all a big improvement from our test last year, getting so many laps under our belt, so the team have done a good job, a big thanks goes to them. We know there’s a few things we still need to improve on, but we’re in a reasonable place heading into race week. We’ve gathered a lot of data, which we’ll be analysing thoroughly ahead of next week. We’ll be working hard to get as much lap time out of the car and look to get the development of the MCL60 underway.”

Laps/km/miles	44 (238 miles/383km)
Fastest lap	1m33.655s (16th)

“Day three done. It wasn’t the smoothest of mornings as we had a few issues with the car. I didn't get as many laps in as we would have liked. But nonetheless we still got some good running, and I'm still learning all the time, which is good. I think we’re in reasonable shape for next week, some more laps would be lovely but that’s always the case. It’s been a good few days of working with the team, getting the season underway, thanks to them for their support. I feel like we’re in a pretty good spot and I'm looking forward to getting out for my first race next week.”

ANDREA STELLA, Team Principal

“The final day of pre-season testing has been challenging, as we had some downtime during the repair of a minor ongoing issue. We are not concerned about the issue for the race but it required some attention today to ensure we could complete as much of our run plan as possible. Despite those small setbacks we could still get some good information about the car in representative night-time conditions. We were able to see that we have made some steps in terms of performance across the test, and we have some valuable information ahead of the race next weekend.

“I would like to thank all the team, both trackside and at the factory, for the hard work during the test. Likewise, I would like to thank HPP for their support. We are now ready to go racing and look forward to the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix.”

Today's official testing times

1	Sergio Perez	Red Bull Racing	1:30.305	133 laps
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:30.664	65 laps
3	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	1:30.827	131 laps
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:31.024	67 laps
5	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:31.036	76 laps
6	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1:31.261	79 laps
7	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:31.381	95 laps
8	George Russell	Mercedes	1:31.442	83 laps
9	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:31.450	80 laps
10	Felipe Drugovich	Aston Martin	1:32.075	77 laps
11	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:32.160	37 laps
12	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:32.762	56 laps
13	Alex Albon	Williams	1:32.793	136 laps
14	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:33.257	76 laps
15	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	1:33.329	77 laps
16	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:35.665	44 laps
17	Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri	1:38.244	87 laps

Test dates

Pre-season testing has now concluded. The team will stay in Bahrain and start final preparations for the 2023 season. The MCL60 will return to track at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

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