The first day of the 2025 Saudi Arabian GP ended with a close battle, placing McLaren in the first positions. After topping the timing sheet, Lando Norris managed to harness the car’s potential in order to achieve great results. The McLarens looked good ahead of the difficult race to come on Sunday at the Jeddah Corniche circuit. In FP1, Norris set an amazing time, losing P1 to Pierre Gasly by only +0.007. However, FP2 showcased a familiar 1-2 for the McLaren drivers, with Norris leading Oscar Piastri by a +0.163 difference.
Great start to the weekend for Norris
With only a small amount of necessary chaos during the Free Practice sessions, Lando Norris was quite happy with his development throughout the two hours he had on the track. He mentioned how his first day back at this night circuit was not without some hectic moments. The fast pace and small run-off areas left no room for mistakes from the British driver.
However, Norris seemed to have found a decent pace, reportedly having to focus more on his driving and less on the performance of the car. Nevertheless, he has gained a lot of confidence already:
“I think it was a pretty decent first day. It always just feels chaotic around here because it’s so fast. A lot of walls, a lot of near misses, but I think today has really been a day of trying to be working on my driving, working on myself more than probably trying to work on the car and getting more confident.
“So I think a good start to the weekend, productive, gaining confidence, gaining feelings, so from what I wanted to achieve today I think I’m on the right tracks.”
Meanwhile, the Australian Oscar Piastri shared similar feelings to his teammate. The Saudi Arabian GP appears to welcome the drivers and work with the MCL39’s configurations. This McLaren driver had a little more trouble with some of the corners, but he showed confidence for improvement:
“It was a decent day, I think the pace has been good, and I’ve felt reasonably comfortable. There’s been a few corners that I need to try and do a bit of a better job at tomorrow, but all in all, it’s felt like a good day.
“So the pace has been good, still some things to iron out. It’s not been perfect, but still feeling good.”
Expectations for the qualifying round
This Friday brought Lando Norris some peace of mind after his rather unfortunate race in Bahrain. The driver expects his qualifying session tomorrow to go smoothly. Despite newfound confidence, he shared his disappointment with the lack of a bigger gap between McLaren and the rest of the field:
“I think at the minute I would say we feel confident, but the others are not far behind. I probably was hoping for a bigger gap than what we had today.”
Not to mention, the championship leader touched upon his belief in McLaren’s capabilities ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP. He pointed out that, despite the great car provided by his team, he will focus on his own race:
“We know we’re fast, we know we have a great car, but certainly not as comfortable as what we would like. So nothing more than that, keep our heads down, keep focused on ourselves and see what we can do.”
His teammate decided upon a similar approach when it comes to the rest of the weekend. The Saudi Arabian GP seemed to come with a couple more difficulties for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Compared to his pole position in the last race, he appears to have more reservations this time around:
“I think the pace in the car is good. I’ve been feeling pretty good. I think there’s still some things to improve for tomorrow, a bit more pace to find, but no, so far everything’s been going reasonably well, so I’m feeling confident for tomorrow.”
