Lando Norris almost suffered a bizarre crash during day three of F1 2025 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Norris was on driving duties for McLaren in the morning session at the Bahrain International Circuit, with team-mate Oscar Piastri taking over in the afternoon.
McLaren and Norris topped the timing sheets on Wednesday and their long-run pace has been strong throughout both days.
They are expected to again be among the contenders for both world championships this season.
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However, their pre-season testing programme was almost cut short by Norris early on day three.
Heading into the left-hander turn three at the Bahrain International Circuit, the Brit suffered a snap of oversteer on corner exit and quickly had to correct it.
The car went off the track and almost hit the outside wall, but Norris was able to regain control before reversing his McLaren back on to the circuit.
Commentator Alex Brundle noted that he had 'never seen' an F1 car hit the outside wall since the circuit first held a Grand Prix in 2004.
Norris was able to continue his running and moved into third place on a 1:30.943 heading into the final two hours of the morning.
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Speaking after Wednesday's session, the 25-year-old told reporters that the 2025 McLaren 'feels similar' to last season's Constructors' Championship-winning machine - but that there are still areas they need to 'focus on'.
"It feels similar, which is a good start," he said. "It's where we wanted to start at least.
"We've just tried to make the car quick all around and add more load, a simple way of looking at it honestly.
"We still want to try and focus on some areas more than others. We've struggled a bit more with the rear than we would have liked over yesterday and today. But it's still early days.
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"We're not looking at performance or absolute, outright performance. If we went into qualifying now, I'm sure we would change things."
F1 2025 testing: Day two leaderboard
- 1. Carlos Sainz (Williams) - 1:29.348
- 2. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) - 1:29.379
- 3. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) - 1:29.431
- 4. George Russell (Mercedes) - 1:29.778
- 5. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) - 1:29.784
- 6. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) - 1:30.229
- 7. Liam Lawson (Red Bull) - 1:30.252
- 8. Jack Doohan (Alpine) - 1:30.368
- 9. Pierre Gasly (Alpine) - 1:30.430
- 10. Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) - 1:30.675
- 11. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) - 1:30.700
- 12. Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) - 1:30.793
- 13. Oscar Piastri (McLaren) - 1:30.821
- 14. Lando Norris (McLaren) - 1:30.882
- 15. Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) - 1:31.057
- 16. Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) - 1:31.457
- 17. Esteban Ocon (Haas) - 1:33.071
- 18. Ollie Bearman (Haas) - 1:33.372
Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Alex Albon (Williams) did not set a lap time as their team-mates completed a full day of running.
Topics: Lando Norris, McLaren, Formula 1
Ryan Smart