Can McLaren carry their strong Friday form into Qualifying

The opening day of action at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix saw McLaren end second practice with a 1-2 finish, as Lando Norris led the way from teammate Oscar Piastri. But with Norris warning that the team are “not as comfortable as what we would like”, what does the data say about where the squad stand in relation to their rivals?

While Pierre Gasly was the surprise pace-setter in first practice (more on which later), Norris was a mere seven-thousandths behind in second. The Briton then went one better in the more representative FP2, going fastest with his effort of 1m 28.167s.

With Piastri his closest challenger just over one-tenth back in P2, McLaren certainly looked on form and our data backs this up – though the papaya squad’s advantage is smaller in Qualifying trim, leading those simulations by 0.09s from Red Bull.

This would seem to echo comments by Norris after the session as the Briton suggested that the team’s rivals are hot on their tail.

“I think at the minute we feel confident but the others are not far behind,” Norris explained.

“I was probably hoping for a bigger gap than what we had today. We know we’re fast, we know we have a great car but certainly not comfortable, not as comfortable as what we would like. Nothing more than that, keep our heads down, focus on ourselves and see what we can do.”

Piastri also conceded that he felt there were some areas for improvement, the Australian having commented: “It was a decent day, I think the pace has been good and it felt reasonably comfortable.

“There’s been a few corners that I need to try and do a little bit of a better job at tomorrow but all-in-all it felt like a good day. I think the pace has been good, still some things to iron out. It’s not been perfect but still feeling good.”

McLaren look strong in both the low and high-speed corners, with the team faster than anybody in the low-speed – and Ferrari are the only team to beat them in the high-speed.

Data shows that Max Verstappen was the best of the rest in terms of one-lap pace, despite the Dutchman ending second practice back in ninth place on the timesheets.

But the picture is mixed for Red Bull; while their Qualifying simulations appear promising, the data suggests that the Milton Keynes-based outfit are not as strong in terms of race pace, ranking as the fourth best team on this behind McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari.

George Russell suggested that FP2 had been a “messy session” – with a late red flag following a crash for Yuki Tsunoda causing some disruption – but went on to predict that Qualifying will be “a close battle”.

“We aim for the next best team and hopefully we can try and sneak up there but McLaren are very good again,” the Briton added.

As for Ferrari, the data suggests that they are closer in race simulation pace than Qualifying. However, Charles Leclerc spoke positively about the learnings taken from Friday’s running in Jeddah.

When asked if the changes made to the car had helped him to feel more confident for Qualifying, the Monegasque responded: “Yes, I do. We’ve done a good job by exploring different options and it’s pretty clear in my head what I want to do for tomorrow.”

Gasly was a slightly unexpected name at the top of the timesheets in FP1, days on from the Frenchman scoring Alpine’s first points of the season last time out with a P7 finish in Bahrain. However, our data indicates that the Enstone-based outfit’s improvement looks to be real.

The team rank as the fifth strongest both in Qualifying and race trim, putting them ahead of their rivals in what is an increasingly close midfield battle.

“Personally I had a great feel with the car straightaway from FP1,” Gasly said after the day’s running. “It felt like I had the package to really push on this track, which is very high speed and quite tricky, but the car was there straight from the start.

“FP2, a little bit more difficult to put the lap together and struggled a bit more with the grip out there. Obviously tomorrow we know that’s the session that matters in the night, a bit colder conditions, so it feels that there is a bit of work to do there but overall I’m very pleased with this Friday.”

Another surprise from the day was that Kick Sauber were quicker than anybody else on the straights by 0.15s, while their one-lap pace was also stronger than that of Racing Bulls, Aston Martin and Haas.