Norris wants to find more pace in qualifying trim

Having topped the opening practice session at the Australian Grand Prix, Lando Norris struggled to extract everything from his McLaren in low-fuel configuration in the second one-hour session.

Norris topped the opening session for McLaren with a late flying lap, demonstrating his MCL39's performance. The reigning champion team carried this form over into the second one-hour session, but Ferrari's Charles Leclerc narrowly beat Norris and his team-mate Oscar Piastri.

Reflecting on his first day of the season, the Bristol-born driver insisted that he was delighted with the performance in high-fuel configuration, but he will need to find out how to extract the maximum in qualifying trim.

“A decent first day back in the car. Good feelings, all in all. We’re struggling a bit with the balance, so we need to make a few changes to get it into a better place, but a good start to the weekend for us as a team. A good baseline, but a bit to improve on.

“So-so. I think it’s been a good start to the weekend. We’ve got a good baseline, but certainly not happy or confident with the car in terms of finding the best balance and being consistent enough, especially on low fuel.

“I feel like [on the] high fuel, I felt good, [but] just low fuel, similar to Bahrain – too many inconsistencies, too many problems, so a bit of a struggle.”

When asked whether it is still too early to assume that McLaren will enjoy a positive level of performance in the season ahead, Norris hinted at how close the battle could be as he responded: “I don’t know what positive means, but I think we’ll be strong. I think, like we said the whole time, we’ll be strong, Ferrari will be strong, Mercedes [too]. I don’t know, we’ll wait and see.”

Home favourite Oscar Piastri finished fourth in the opening practice before improving to second in the afternoon sixty-minute session. The Melbourne-born driver conceded that McLaren will have some homework to complete ahead of qualifying, but he is sure that his McLaren has the underlying pace.

“It was a productive first day back for us, and it was pretty encouraging. We’ve still got some things to work on, but the pace was there.

"We’ve tried a few different things and gathered some good information, the car feels different to last year but that’s pretty normal. I am excited to see what we can do tomorrow – it’s been a pretty positive first day.”

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella sounded a positive note when assessing the Woking-based outfit's performance on the opening day at the Australian Grand Prix.

“A relatively smooth session today without any major issues. This allowed us to run through our plan and to check the behaviour of the MCL39 here in Australia – which is a very different circuit to Bahrain, where we carried out winter testing.

"I think we’ve seen that the car behaves as expected, which is good news. Based on what we have seen today, we have some work to do in terms of optimisation but overall, it has been positive.

"I think these first couple of sessions have confirmed the field is, if possible, even tighter than it was in the past, so from a competitive point of view, we look forward to another interesting Formula 1 season," concluded Stella.