Oscar Piastri was satisfied with his car’s balance despite ending the second practice session 11th and missing the first.

The championship contender had to miss the first hour of practice so McLaren could run a junior driver in his car for the second time this year, as required by the rules.

First practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix tends to be unrepresentative of the competitive sessions as it takes place earlier in the day when the track is hotter. Piastri made a mistake on his final run on the soft tyres in the second session but said he was happy with his car’s balance on the harder rubber.

“I got there pretty well on the medium, just on the soft just I didn’t get the most out of the grip on that first timed lap,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “So I’m finding my feet, I think. Clearly there’s some things to try and improve for tomorrow but I think after just one session it’s not too bad.”

Piastri said his car “feels like it’s in a pretty decent place” and just needs “some small tweaks” before tomorrow’s running. His team mate Lando Norris was quickest of all, beating their championship rival Max Verstappen by over three tenths of a second.

“The car’s looked quick,” Piastri admitted. “I just need to get some more laps under my belt and find my feet a bit more really, that’s all. So a few more laps tomorrow, a few more sets of tyres and hopefully we’ll be there.”

Norris, who took part in both practice sessions, said he can still see room for improvement in the car and expects their rivals will close the gap to them in qualifying tomorrow.

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“Obviously, from the times and everything, things are good at the minute,” he said. “But I still want a bit more from the car.

“I’m not completely happy, not completely confident. We’re a bit in the middle of trying some different things and trying to understand some things with the car. So hopefully there’s some more stuff we can get out of it overnight.

“It’s not been a bad day, for sure, it’s been a positive day. But we always know it gets a lot closer going into quali, so nothing to smile about just yet.”

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