McLaren is “on another planet” in Abu Dhabi

Even though Charles Leclerc set the best time in Free Practice 1, it was McLaren's performance during the second session that particularly attracted attention. The Woking team monopolized the first two places, Lando Norris setting a time of 1'23″517, two tenths ahead of Oscar Piastri and almost half a second ahead of Nico Hülkenberg. Carlos Sainz, the most successful Ferrari driver, accused as for him a delay of 582 thousandths.

Far behind by more than a second, George Russell was carrying out adjustment tests with a view to 2025. He nevertheless estimates that his team was behind McLaren by around four tenths per lap, even if he hopes for a close-up carried out during the night. “Lewis [Hamilton] had some very good laps, and I think as a team we are still far from McLaren and Ferrari.”

“McLaren, in particular, seems to be on another planet at the moment. As I said, Lewis has done a great job, but we are still four tenths behind McLaren. So it is more significant than what we usually expect. I expect that Ferrari will probably come back into the mix, that Max [Verstappen] will probably get back into it, but hopefully we can make some improvements for tomorrow.”

Even more discreet than the other teams, Red Bull did not seem to have a particularly good day, with none of the drivers finishing in the top 10 of EL2. Max Verstappen especially seemed to suffer from a front end that was not really to his liking at the wheel of the RB20. Building on what happened in Qatar between the sprint and qualifying, he hopes that his team will succeed in reversing the trend.

“I'm sure we can do better. I'm not saying it will be at McLaren's level, because they look very fast so far this weekend,” said the Dutchman. “But at least if we can fight in this top 6, I think it will be a good progression, because until now it was quite tricky.”

With Jake Boxall-Legge