Bahrain International Circuit, Saturday, 2 March

Hear from McLaren Formula 1 drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, as well as Team Principal Andrea Stella, after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

As is happened:
• Lando and Oscar hold their positions off the start.
• On Lap 3, Lando makes a move on Alonso.
• Alonso out of DRS, giving Oscar an opportunity to get past him too. 
• Oscar boxes from Softs to Hards, and Landi does the same on the following lap.
• The first set of stops shuffle out, leaving Lando P6 and Oscar P7.
• Both drivers have a solid stint before they pit again for fresh Hards.
• Oscar loses position to Hamilton exiting the pits, leaving him in P9 and Lando P7.
• Lando passes Alonso for P6, and a few laps later so does Hamilton and Oscar.
• Lando tries to hunt down P5, but doesn't quite have enough.
• The chequered flag falls with Lando P6 and Oscar P8.

Started	7th
Finished	6th
Fastest lap	1m34.476s on lap 35 (+1.868s, 5th)
Pit stops	2, lap 13 [Soft/Hard] (2.4s) and lap 33 [Hard/Hard] (3.0s)

“It was a tough race, but I think we still had a good race with good pace, and it was a definite improvement on last year, so I think we can be happy as a team. I think the wind hurt us a bit today. It changed a lot from the last few days, and it felt a lot worse in some corners, but we moved forward, and it was the best we could have hoped for today. A good start to the year.”

Started	8th
Finished	8th
Fastest lap	1m34.983s on lap 39 (+2.375s, 11th)
Pit stops	2, lap 12 [Soft/Hard] (3.5s) and lap 34 [Hard/Hard] (3.2s)

“So, a P8 to start the year. I personally felt like it was a good race for myself, and I think the race pace we had seemed ok. A few things to improve, but not a bad first race for us, especially when you look at where we were this time last year. I’m excited to see what the next few circuits have in store for us, and looking forward to seeing what we can do in the races to come.”

“It’s good to begin the season with a strong performance here in Bahrain. We’ve been reliable, we were quick enough to fight the Mercedes today, and this allowed us to score good points at a track we know isn’t the best for the characteristics of our car.

“I would like to praise the work of team at McLaren. They’ve consolidated the progress that we made last year and delivered an MCL38 which is a reliable and performing car. It’s a good foundation for the further improvements we plan to introduce as soon as possible.

“Oscar and Lando drove very well and consistently this evening. They made no mistakes in tricky conditions, particularly on the Hard tyres, and got our team off to a good start to 2024.”