Formula 1

'Obvious' Mercedes & Red Bull will be ahead but McLaren 'encouraged'

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Lando Norris believes it is "fairly obvious" Mercedes and Red Bull will pull ahead in qualifying after his second place in Bahrain Grand Prix Practice.

The new McLaren has looked competitive ever since it left the garage in pre-season testing, and that was backed up on Friday as Norris finished in the top three in both sessions.

However, the Briton doesn't think those results were representative of McLaren's true position, as he expects the top two teams to remove the sandbags on Saturday.

“We look quick today, but I think it’s fairly obvious what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Norris said. “It’s going to be the usual front four cars ahead of us.

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“Behind, everything’s very close. Even if today we are a little bit ahead, I think it’s because we just showed a bit more. We’ll go in tomorrow and be a little bit more where we should be.

“I feel good in the car, the car does feel good in some areas. In some areas also it doesn’t feel that good and we need to improve, and if we can improve it tomorrow, then I’ll be happier.”

In fact, that final point was more reflective of McLaren's mood, that there was still significant room for improvement.

“I don’t have the confidence that I want, especially in the medium and high-speed corners,” Norris explained.

“So corners like turn six, seven. I made a mistake there on my first lap and I had to abort because I turned in and just completely lost the rear.

“My confidence in the car is where I want it to be, but isn’t where we had it last year. There’s also improvements in other places compared to last year. So it’s not necessarily that everything has to be better, there are just areas to work on.”

Teammate Daniel Ricciardo was a little more optimistic, however, seeing McLaren's strong Friday as a good starting point.

“The encouraging thing is we’re second and sixth and still both relatively unhappy,” said the Australian.

“There’s still some things to perfect, did I think I put in awesome laps today? Not yet awesome. But I don’t think today is a good kind of benchmark.

“It is nice to get everyone on track in the same conditions, though. So we do see where we stand.

“Not to be too pessimistic, but I don’t think we’re yet saying we’re 100% into the car and comfortable and it’s doing everything we want.

“I think we’ve still got some work to do but knowing that, and we’re still at the pointy ends, I guess that’s encouraging.”

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