Bahrain pre-season test: Day 3 "Winter testing has now concluded and we're very excited to be going racing again"
Bahrain International Circuit, Saturday 12 March
Hear from McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris, and Team Principal, Andreas Seidl, after Day 3 of the pre-season test.
Key facts
| Drivers | Lando Norris |
| Laps/km/miles | 90/487km/303 miles |
| Best laptime | 1m33.191s (9th) |
LANDO NORRIS, #4
“A better final day. We ended with some more positives with thankfully a lot more running. The team made some good progress with the problems we’ve been having. There’s still a lot of improvements to be made for us to able to compete next week. We have a better understanding of the car, and we’ll try to implement all of that next week and improve everything going into the first race of the season. So, a tough three days, not what we wanted but good enough. We’ve learnt a lot and made the most of it, which is the most important thing.”
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ANDREAS SEIDL, Team Principal
“After a positive start in Barcelona, we’ve had a very challenging test here in Bahrain. Our running has been compromised by an issue on the front axle. Time constraints did not allow us to entirely solve this during the test but we were able to move forward, despite a limitation in the number of laps we could complete. We continued to improve our understanding of the car and extract more performance over the course of the test.
“The objective is to fully solve this issue before next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, giving it our all here at the track and at the MTC to catch-up on what we’ve lost over the past three days. Thanks to our entire trackside team, the team back home at the factory and our colleagues from Mercedes HPP for their hard work during this test. Thanks also to Lando for completing all three days, with Daniel unavailable, testing positive for covid. We wish him a speedy recovery and are looking forward to having him back next weekend for the first race of the season. Winter testing has now concluded and we’re very excited to be going racing again.”
Today's official testing times
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:31.720s | 53 laps |
| 2 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1:32.241s | 85 laps |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:32.415s | 51 laps |
| 4 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1:32.698s | 122 laps |
| 5 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:32.759s | 71 laps |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1:32.985s | 68 laps |
| 7 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:33.002s | 57 laps |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing | 1:33.105s | 43 laps |
| 9 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:33.191s | 90 laps |
| 10 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:33.821s | 81 laps |
| 11 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | 1:33.959s | 82 laps |
| 12 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:34.865s | 91 laps |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:34.905s | 68 laps |
| 14 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1:35.171s | 18 laps |
| 15 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:35.634s | 124 laps |
| 16 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1:36.029s | 53 laps |
| 17 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:36.217s | 78 laps |
| 18 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:38.616s | 38 laps |
What's next?
Pre-season testing has now concluded. The team will return to the McLaren Technology Centre and start final preparations for the 2022 season. The MCL36 will return to track at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Test dates
Three days (Thursday 10 - Saturday 12 March 2022).
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