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Pre-season test: Day 3

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

McLaren RacingFormula-1 - 2023 - Pre-season-testing - Bahrain-test-day-3

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.”

McLaren RacingFormula-1 - 2023 - Pre-season-testing - Bahrain-test-day-3

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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