P1racenews AI automatic summary:
There’s plenty of optimism at McLaren heading into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as the team expects to ‘well and
Despite disruptions during the second practice session, McLaren showed strong pace on Friday, with Lando Norris just 0.043s off the benchmark set by Charles Leclerc. However, there is still work to be done overnight due to a lack of sufficient long-running. Norris found better one-lap pace than the Red Bulls but acknowledged that there is plenty of work to do. The FP2 session was twice red-flagged, but Norris was still happy with the car’s performance. On the other side of the McLaren garage, Oscar Piastri felt confident despite a few mistakes and disruptions during the day. McLaren holds a slim 11-point advantage over Aston Martin heading into the final round, but Piastri is optimistic about their chances and hopes to make it to Q3.
