With two hours left on the clock in Bahrain, Lando Norris has also left the garage. The reigning world champion had to sit out the opening test hours after McLaren ran into a technical problem during the lunch break. Based on footage from the pit lane it appeared to be a fault with the cooling system. Norris faces his final test laps ahead of the season opener in Melbourne: his first chance to defend the title.
Oscar Piastri handled Friday morning running for McLaren. The Australian completed 66 laps and posted the third-fastest time of the day; only Charles Leclerc and Kimi Antonelli were quicker. While Piastri was able to put in clean mileage, Norris was forced to spend a large part of the afternoon session in the garage. During the lunch break McLaren had identified an issue with the MCL40, which prevented the world champion from going out on track.
With two hours left on the clock Norris eventually joined the other drivers at the Bahrain International Circuit. McLaren had made a strong impression during the recent test weeks, although the world champion had earlier warned about rivals Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull. “No, it won’t be an easy season,” he told the press. “Everything just worked better last year. We had a pace advantage, which meant we could even run slower in the race.”
