The Team Principal of McLaren F1 Team, Andreas Seidl, has branded the team’s result in Saturday’s Sprint race as “very good,” following a fifth and sixth place finish for the papaya-coloured team’s pairing.
Lando Norris started the Sprint Qualifying session in third place after a good first run in Qualifying Three on Friday, and bringing the red flag out on the final run of the session, saving his spot on the second row. The twenty-two-year old was able to hold position at the first chicane, before being passed on laps eleven and nineteen of twenty one by Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz Jr. – demoting him to fifth place.
Meanwhile, team-mate, Daniel Ricciardo, was able to hold on to the sixth place he started in, despite not having a chance to run in the dry at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola as a result of car issues in Free Practice Two. The Australian will be joining his team-mate on the third row of the grid in Sunday’s main race; which Seidl believes will be “exciting”:
“A very good result today, with both cars in the points but also good starting positions for tomorrow’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix,” said Seidl.
“P5 for Lando and P6 for Daniel was the best that we could do today. It is a good recovery after a difficult start to the day, with Daniel not able to run in FP2 after the team found an issue on the car, and Lando missing most of the session with a brake system issue.
“My thanks to the whole team here at the track, supported by the factory, and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP for the hard work today. We have another evening of hard work ahead, as we prepare to do it all over again in what we expect to be an exciting race.”
After a difficult first two races at Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and a more promising result of fifth and sixth in Australia, McLaren seem to have found their feet in the early stages of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship and will be hoping to score as many points as possible on Sunday.