Norris: We're having some difficulties on the fast lap.

      After the practice sessions in Mexico, Lando Norris was fourth on Friday's timesheet, while his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was only 12th, after which he admitted he hadn’t done the best lap on the soft tyres with a light fuel load.

      Lando Norris (4th): “I watched the first practice from the sidelines, and it was quite interesting. But during that session we couldn't see the on-board camera footage, so there wasn't much information, and generally I was just trying to understand what was happening with the grip and what the car's behaviour felt like — that's about it.

      From the second session I can say that overall we're at a decent level, and I was even surprised I managed to find the right speed so quickly, because the very first lap was pretty good, and I was able to improve on the second.

      It felt like I quickly found the limit of what was possible, and overall I can't say it was a bad day. Usually we look very good on Friday, and on Saturday everyone catches up with us. But right now we're already a bit behind our rivals, so of course we have work to do tonight.

      During the session I complained about unstable engine performance, but the team sorted that out straight away, so the real problems were only with the balance, though it's been the same at several previous rounds — we have particular difficulties over one flying lap.

      But we keep working, doing everything we can — we'll see if we can find some extra speed.”

      Oscar Piastri (12th): “Overall the session went fine, although the lap on the soft tyres with a small amount of fuel in the tank was quite average, so the time that was shown then doesn't surprise me.

      We tried a lot of setup options, now we need to analyse everything and understand what worked and what didn't, but overall the impressions are pretty decent. We'll see where improvements can be made while preparing for tomorrow, and we'll try to achieve greater stability. That's the most important thing right now.

      There are a number of issues we identified back in Austin, where, of course, the weekend went rather poorly. But we've largely worked through them, and although they're various kinds of small details, when you add them up they can bring gains. I think we've drawn the right conclusions from what happened last week.

      I think McLaren is on a level with Red Bull Racing, and the rivalry, as always, will be fierce, but I believe we have a pretty good car.”