Reigning World Champion Lando Norris continued his 2025 momentum by topping the timesheets on the opening day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Carrying the number one on his MCL40, Norris clocked a 1:34.669 in the final hour. The Brit narrowly edged out his primary title rival, Max Verstappen, by 0.129 seconds.
Shared Duties
McLaren opted to split their program between both drivers to maximise feedback on the new 2026 regulations.
Oscar Piastri handled the morning session, recording 54 laps and finishing the day fifth overall with a 1:35.602.
Norris took over for the afternoon, adding 58 laps to bring the team’s total to 112.
While their individual counts were lower than the marathon stints seen elsewhere, the combined data provided a comprehensive look at the car’s performance across varying track temperatures.
Promising start or too early to tell
McLaren’s early pace will undoubtably provide confidence to the Woking based team.
Following the Barcelona shakedown confidence was already high.
Ahead of their title defence, Chief Designer Rob Marshall claimed there were “no nasties” while technical director of performance Mark Temple claimed there were a lot of “positives”.
Yet heading to Bahrain there was always an element of uncertainty around how the cars would perform. Higher temperatures and a totally different track to what is seen at Barcelona provides a completely different landscape.
Piastri’s pace in the opening session will have calmed the nerves but, with all eyes on the reigning world champion, Norris’ drive will have given the team a big lift.
The timesheet, though, will be taken with a pinch of salt: many teams will keep representative pace under cover until the first race of the season.
However, with brand new regulations, the smoothness in which the session went for the team should not be underestemated.
Two more days of testing await the teams before a break ahead of the final set of testing next week.
Feature Image courtesy of Formula 1
Further reporting conducted by Megan Wood