Lando Norris was left feeling “positive” after another successful day for McLaren which had the MCL34 setting the second-fastest time and registering over 100 laps.
The McLaren was once again one of the star performers after finishing the day second with a final run on the softer compound tyres.
Equipped with the C4 tyres, Norris set a time three tenths of a second slower than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had set his lap time in the morning session on harder-compound tyres.
However, the main positive for McLaren was the mileage; they have enjoyed one of their most productive opening two days to a session for some time, hovering around the 250 lap mark.
Speaking after the second test day, Norris shared the same optimism that team-mate Carlos Sainz had on day one of the test.
“For myself, with it being my first day in the car, there was a lot to take in from yesterday and Carlos’ [Sainz] running. I think the first half-day at least is just trying to get up to speed, get comfortable with the car, know how to push it in the right ways.
“We got over 100 laps, which was the main positive. I think mileage was one of our main things to improve on, compared to the last couple of years.
“From that side of things, we’re happy. Mileage is also good for myself to learn about the car and developing the areas that I’m not so good in.”
Norris went on to say that the car hadn’t encountered any unexpected reliability woes, but was hoping to experience them in testing to save any painful opening races.
“I don’t think there’s been any surprises. I think that a lot of the things that we’ve found out on the car we had a decent understanding of. Some things we’re trying we haven’t tried in the windtunnel before. As a whole package, there’s obviously thing that we’ve learned from today and yesterday.
“I managed to do some longer runs, something which I haven’t really done in any other tests so far. For myself, it’s good to know that we can get through pretty much a whole day without any problems.
“But, it’s only day two, I’m sure we’re going to run into a couple of problems at some point, but it’s just making sure we can get through this whole test, know what the problems could be, and making sure we figure them out before Australia.”
To view the full report from the second test day, click here.
