For McLaren, Friday in Australia was a positive day. The team from Woking performed much better than in the past two races and seems to have taken a big step forward.
During the first free practice session, McLaren still thought it was because of the session time, but also in the second free practice session Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo were in a much better position than in the previous races. Norris finished in eighth place and Ricciardo concluded the second session of the day in tenth place.
McLaren book progress
''We’ve had a very productive Friday in Melbourne. Despite several interruptions for red flags, we could work through our programme without problems. Understanding the tyres was a significant part of that: they look interesting this weekend,'' Andrea Stella informed McLaren's press release.
The McLaren Executive Director sees the step forward that his team has made. ''In terms of competitiveness, we seem to have taken a small step forward. We’ll have to work hard tonight to try and consolidate our position with the aim of being in contention for a position in Q3 tomorrow, and hopefully fighting for some points on Sunday,'' he concludes.