O'Ward "super happy" after driving McLaren in front of his home crowd

Having got behind the wheel of Lando Norris' MCL38 in yesterday's opening practice session, McLaren Racing's IndyCar driver Patricio O'Ward insists that he was happy to be able to tick all the boxes of the run plan that the Woking-based outfit had determined ahead of the weekend.

McLaren's regular driver Lando Norris sat out the opening practice as Pato O’Ward got behind his car in Free Practice 1. The Briton came back in for FP2 with a new floor to boot, and wound up fifth overall.

McLaren Racing's IndyCar driver O’Ward set a time of 1m19.295s in the opening sixty-minute practice to finish in P13. The Mexican driver labelled his day as "fabulous", praising the passionate crowd.

“A fabulous day today really, I very much enjoyed my FP1 outing in Mexico. The crowd was unbelievable, and I’m super happy that I was able to extract everything from the programme that the team had planned.

"It was great to be able to support Lando, Oscar and the team in learning and set-up, and contribute in a positive way to the weekend. I can’t wait to see what the team can do tomorrow and in the race on Sunday.”

Commenting on O'Wards' practice outing in FP1, McLaren team boss added: “I would also like to congratulate Pato and say well done. He drove very, very well in FP1.

"He contributed a lot to our testing programme, and we were very encouraged with what we saw in terms of consistency and pace, even though we didn’t necessarily seek maximum performance due to the test items we needed to go through. We now shift our focus to our preparation for Qualifying and the race.”