Carlos Sainz considered his first day in the new McLaren as a decent first step after finishing second on the timesheets.
The Spaniard was helped by being one of only two drivers to use the C4 Pirelli tyres, the second softest in the range, which allowed him to make several improvements in the final hour and finish within half a second of Sebastian Vettel.
Ahead of what is meant to be a rebuilding year for the British team, Sainz believes there is already signs the new approach is working.
“We’ve done a lot of work in the simulator over the winter that helped prepare for this test to hit the ground running with the setup, so we didn’t need to do any adjustments,” he was quoted by Crash.net.
“I think we have identified the big balance issues and things we need to improve. Now we need to debrief and have a clear direction that we need for the next three days to hopefully improve the car from today until the last day of testing as there is still a good margin.”
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Reliability has been a weakness for McLaren at testing in recent years and, except for stopping at the end of the pit-lane in the afternoon, all ran smoothly as the former Renault driver completed 118 laps.
“To be out on track at 9am and not have any issues with the car at all to complete almost 120 laps is definitely a good place to start the year," Sainz declared.
"The factory, the 600 people back at Woking that I’ve been together with this winter, I am sure back in Woking they will be happy at running reliably.”
