Lando Norris attempted to play down McLaren’s dominant-looking start to the Bahrain Grand Prix which left their rivals describing the pacesetters’ Friday advantage as being “very big” and putting them on “another planet”.
McLaren head into this weekend’s event, the season’s fourth round, leading both world championship standings and already appearing big favourites for victory at Sakhir after topping Friday’s two practice sessions.
Oscar Piastri and team-mate Norris also finished one-two in the more representative floodlit evening session, when McLaren’s advantage over the field on the single-lap timesheet was in excess of half a second.
Rival teams talking up the performance advantage of McLaren’s car, and the Woking team insisting they are not actually so far ahead of the pack, has quickly become a theme of the 2025 season’s early weeks.
Mercedes’ George Russell claimed at the season’s second round in China that McLaren “should win every race”, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen cheekily said after his narrow victory over Norris and Piastri last week in Japan that “you wouldn’t have seen me” had he been driving the MCL39.
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Hear what Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had to say on Thursday about the Red Bull driver’s post-Suzuka comments, plus the views of the Sky F1 pundits
Verstappen confirmed on Thursday that he had not been joking when he made that remark, to which Norris replied: “I believe Oscar and myself are both good drivers.
“He’s maybe better at some things but he’s not better in every area. I have a lot of respect for Max but I also know some things are not true.
“He can come and test our car any day that he wants and I’ll be excited to see the disappointment on his face after he gets out.”
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Verstappen says he did not have a lot of ‘fun’ in P1 and P2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix and admits Red Bull have quite a bit of work to do
One day on and McLaren’s dominant start in Bahrain had rivals readily talking up the team’s pace again.
Russell, who was third quickest for Mercedes, said: “We expected McLaren to be a big step ahead here and we saw that today. A long way ahead in the middle sector where the tyres are overheating.
“So we know we have got a bit of work to do but we’re in the position fighting for the next best [positions] I think.”
Verstappen was only seventh, 0.8s away from Piastri, and said of the “massive” gap: “It’s big. We did a bit of a different approach to our Friday so I think this gap is very big.”
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Following FP1 and FP2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton said the Ferrari upgrades are ‘definitely working’ and thanked the engineers
And Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, whose team have brought floor upgrades to this weekend in a bid to start turning around their largely disappointing start to the season, admitted after finishing half a second adrift in fourth: “I’m trying to push into a direction that allows me to extract a bit more out of the car, but to be honest the potential of the car remains the same and we’re just not fast enough.
“When we look at the McLaren, they are just on another planet for now. So it’s annoying but it’s the way it is and it actually motivates me to try and close that gap as soon as possible, but they are incredibly fast.”
So what are McLaren saying about their pace?
Despite the team’s impressive Friday one-two, Norris started his post-session interview by saying the MCL39 had actually felt “shocking” and “horrendous” compared to how it did in pre-season testing at the same circuit six weeks ago when conditions were significantly cooler.
And although the title leader did accept that “relatively our pace was still in a reasonable place”, he was not buying the large timesheet gap and implied that rivals had not turned their engines up on Friday as much as McLaren.
“I don’t think they turned up,” said Norris in apparent reference to rivals’ engine modes.
“Everyone just looks at the timesheets, they have no idea about the information on who turns things up and who doesn’t.
“It’s like three or four tenths around here. That puts us immediately back in the same position as the Mercedes.
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Highlights from Friday’s practice sessions at the Bahrain Grand Prix
“So at the minute I wouldn’t say we are any quicker.”
Team-mate Piastri appeared more convinced about McLaren’s advantage, saying their “one-lap pace looks strong and the long run looked reasonable”, although the Australian too said he expected the pack to close in by qualifying on Saturday.
“For it [the gap] to be quite that big was a surprise but I think the others will find a bit more tomorrow and it will be pretty close,” he said.
“Nice to have it now but Bahrain is also a track you can overtake on and tyre degradation is a big factor.
“Qualifying is important but we need to make sure we have a good race car as well.”
How did Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari fare?
While the chasing pack seemed to be in agreement at the end of Friday that McLaren hold a clear advantage heading into the weekend, the battle between the three other big teams appears more finely poised.
“I think it’s going to be close probably between ourselves, Ferrari and Max,” said Russell.
“We just never know, to be honest, but I definitely feel that unlike the last three races this won’t be dominated by qualifying. This weekend is going to be dominated by race pace, by tyre deg, so of course you want to have a good qualifying but the race is where the action will be.”
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Mercedes are forced to use ‘old-school F1’ techniques to separate Kimi Antonelli’s gearbox and engine during FP1 of the Bahrain Grand Prix
Drivers were heard on team radio throughout the two sessions complaining about a lack of grip around the notoriously abrasive track amid the hot temperatures. Verstappen was among them and said his sole session in the RB21 had been “just difficult”.
The world champion, who had sat out Practice One while Red Bull ran young Japanese driver Ayumu Iwasa, said: “Of course, took one lap, two laps to get into it but still the gap was quite massive, so not entirely happy.
“Just struggling a lot with grip, the feeling in general. The balance wasn’t too bad but just off and quite a bit of work to do, also in the long run. We’re just too slow, basically, every lap and honestly it was not a lot of fun out there in the long run. A bit of drift practice at the end there as well.”
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Sky Sports Formula 1 reporter Ted Kravitz talks through the big upgrades Ferrari have taken ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix
Leclerc split the Mercedes duo in fourth place and added on Ferrari’s prospects: “With Mercedes it seems that we are pretty much there.
“With Red Bull I think it’s a bit more difficult, I think Max had one less tyre to use in FP2, so I think he’s probably a bit in front. But we’ve got to wait and see again, I think there’s some performance still to be found on our side maximising the car and the upgrade. We’ll see where that leaves us tomorrow.”
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Hamilton is wheeled back into the garage after struggling with grip in P1
And Lewis Hamilton, who wound up a second back in eighth on the soft-tyre runs having set the pace on mediums, said of his day in the upgraded SF-25: “Quite difficult in the morning as always with the temperature being so high.
“The grip was terrible on the hard tyre for the first run, there’s quite a big shock from hard to soft, which was much better. But we made some changes and the car felt pretty decent in P2.”
Sky Sports F1’s Bahrain GP Schedule
Saturday April 12
- 11.10am: F3 Sprint Race
- 1.15pm: Bahrain GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30pm)
- 3.10pm: F2 Sprint
- 4.10pm: Bahrain GP Qualifying build-up
- 5pm: BAHRAIN GP QUALIFYING
- 7pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
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Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle breaks down the best chances of winning the Bahrain Grand Prix
Sunday April 13
- 10.50am: F3 Feature Race
- 12.20pm: F2 Feature Race
- 2.30pm: Bahrain GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday
- 4pm: THE BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX
- 6pm: Bahrain GP reaction: Chequered Flag
- 7pm: Ted’s Notebook
Formula 1 continues its triple-header in Sakhir at the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – No contract, cancel anytime
