Lando Norris was forced to sit out most of Friday's second practice in Barcelona due to a damaged floor on his MCL36.
Norris, who had clocked in P7 in the FP1, ran off the track at the Circuit de Catalunya's fast, uphill Turn 9 and over the serrated kerbs on the outside of the corner, which damaged the McLaren's new updated floor.
The blow was terminal for Norris' car unfortunately, but McLaren's crews initially suspected that the MCL36's chassis may have also suffered a bruising.
But further inspection did not reveal any additional damage, although the team had yet to conduct a more thorough analysis.
"We needed to stop his programme early, after we picked up some damage running over a kerb – but we can repair that overnight," confirmed McLaren's Andrea Stella.
"There’s a lot of analysis to do this evening – but hopefully we’re in good shape for qualifying and the race."
©McLaren
McLaren topped the upgrade tally ahead of this weekend's race, with ten changes to their car. Norris' first impression on the updates was positive.
"It was a tricky day for me," he said. "I think there are positives with the new bits on the car, some things were working well, and I think the team are happy with some of the improvements."
From P9 in FP1, Daniel Ricciardo regressed to P15 in the late afternoon session. But the raft of changes to McLaren's contender meant that there would be a lot to "dive into" according to the Aussie.
"There’s quite a lot to digest today," he said. "We tried quite a few different settings for both sessions.
"We clearly aren’t where we want to be on the timesheets but there’s a lot to dive into tonight.
"I think we’ll find some things and, let’s say, find the optimal set-up for tomorrow and hopefully that puts us inside the top 10.
"Right now, there’s still a lot to take in so I’m not too sure how much to look into the times today.
"It was interesting to see the other cars and teams and what they’re doing. But we’ll focus on ourselves as for sure everyone today was exploring a few new things on their cars."
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