After a hiatus of nine years and a day, F1 returned to the Sepang Circuit today for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

The McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team completed a multi-faceted run plan designed to reacquaint the team with the circuit, prepare the drivers for a track where neither has raced, and continue our learning around the upgrade package introduced last weekend in Azerbaijan. While the team made positive steps between the two practice sessions, it finishes the day with a lot of unknowns and margin for improvement. The high temperature, tyre degradation, track surface conditions and the weather all remain key topics for the McLaren Mastercard team's debriefs ahead of Saturday.

Ambient temperatures were high and, having debuted new bodywork in Baku, the team elected to run a looser derivative here in Malaysia. High track temperatures, which hit 60°C during FP2, very rough asphalt and expected high degradation created a situation where teams were reluctant to use the harder compound, believing they may be required for a multi-stop race.

The first session was made difficult by a mixture of track conditions, car set-up and energy deployment. Both drivers used a Medium and a Soft tyre, and while the programme went to plan, neither driver was entirely comfortable due to the low-grip conditions. These conditions, combined with tough demands on energy deployment, made it very difficult to find a good set-up. The team, nevertheless, gathered ample data across the cars, with Oscar Piastri running the latest specification H-wing, debuted in Baku, while Lando Norris had a conventional rear wing.

FP2 began with the radar showing rain tracking towards the circuit. As a result, all the drivers were out at the very start of the session, keen to accrue what dry running they could. Lando and Oscar concentrated on the Soft tyre, using two sets each, retaining two Hards and two Mediums for tomorrow and Sunday. Both sets had been used for Qualifying sims in the first ten minutes, though the rain never truly materialised. The few spots that did fall served only to drop the track temperature a few degrees. Having been hovering in the midfield for all of FP1, and at the start of FP2, both cars made a good step with their second set, moving up the order. They then spent the bulk of the session running at high fuel with reasonable pace.

The team finishes running for the day with a lot of work to do to ensure the MCL40 is competitive and to extract as much performance as possible. Add to that the ever-present risk of tropical rain that has defined previous events in Malaysia, and the challenge for the duration of the weekend remains considerable.

Lando Norris: "An interesting first day here at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. Nice to get our first laps in around this circuit, it's a fun track and an interesting challenge in terms of layout and track surface. We're struggling more than we'd like to, but we made some progress going into FP2. We've still got quite a bit more to solve if we want to be competitive, but we'll look at the data this evening and see what we can do going into FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow."

Oscar Piastri: "That's Friday at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia done. It was a reasonable day for us. From FP1 into FP2, we made a solid amount of progress, which meant we finished the day well. Our Quali sims and longer runs felt pretty good. But we still have a lot to find overnight and a lot more to understand about racing here. The true long-run performance across the grid, including for us, is still a bit of an unknown for everyone, but it feels like we could be in the mix.

"The circuit is a cool one to drive, but we're finding the grip and high tyre degradation are really challenging. We need to understand both better overnight to put us in a better position ahead of Qualifying. Our goal is to build on today's positive momentum and extract as much performance as possible to ensure we're competitive."

Randy Singh - Senior Director, Racing: "We found the track conditions quite surprising today. It was a lot rougher and had more grip than our initial forecasts suggested. This presented a challenge in FP1, where we struggled to get the car into an optimal window. However, the team did a fantastic job, both here at the circuit and back at the factory, to analyse the data and dial the car in much better for the second session. We felt far more comfortable in FP2 and made a solid step forward.

"Tyre degradation was the main talking point, and it was consistently high all day, which will definitely be a major factor in the race. The hot, abrasive surface is really tough on the tyres. From a strategy perspective, the high degradation naturally pushes things towards a two-stop, as the numbers make a three-stop very difficult without other factors like a Safety Car. We still have plenty of work ahead of us to fine-tune everything for Qualifying, but we are focused on exploiting the full potential of our package."