Carlos Sainz enjoyed one of the best Fridays of the season on the opening day of the Canadian Grand Prix, the McLaren driver clocking in P4 at the end of FP2 after a day in which his team conducted a few productive experiments on its MCL34.
After concluding his morning seventh and 'best of the rest', Sainz enjoyed a solid afternoon of work, clocking in fourth although the Spaniard admitted that he had benefitted from the troubles that befell Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in FP2.
"We probably had one of the best Fridays of the season," said the McLaren charger.
“I felt comfortable with the car from the morning session and that obviously helped to put together a decent lap and to have good pace on the long run.
"Still I don't believe that we are fourth fastest, I definitely believe that we are behind the top three teams. Probably tomorrow will be a bit back to reality."
McLaren implemented a series of updates to its car for Montreal, including a new floor, but the team also undertook some development over the course of the day.
"Everything is working as it should," said Sainz.
"We've also tried some experimental stuff on the car today.
"A lot of teams are changing front wings, changing everything around just to try to find the optimum balance and there's a lot to analyse today to see what was working well and what was not.
"I'm happy with the team experimenting, trying stuff, it means we're keen to move forward and that's what I want to see."
©McLaren
Lando Norris ended his day just outside the top ten. Taking stock of his Friday, the 19-year-old rookie who is racing in Montreal for the first time admitted he needed to step up his performance.
"There's potential in the car, the car's quick enough to do what Carlos did," said Norris.
"I'm just not driving well, that's basically it, and I need to do a better job - especially when it gets to qualifying.
"I got to grips with the track reasonably quickly but I pretty much haven't moved on since my first run in FP1. A bit frustrating because there's a lot more speed in the car than what I'm bringing out of it."
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