Norris addresses massive McLaren advantage with bold prediction

Lando Norris has downplayed McLaren's pace in Bahrain following the opening day of practice. Norris ended the second practice session in second place, trailing only team-mate Oscar Piastri as McLaren commenced its weekend in strong fashion. Piastri's fastest lap effort placed him over half a second ahead of George Russell in third place for Mercedes. Red Bull also struggled for form as team advisor Helmut Marko explained it ran into issues controlling tyre temperatures. Marko also declared its deficit is not down to being in a low engine mode - a situation Norris doubts. "I don't think they turned up [their engines]," Norris said. "Everyone just looks at the timesheets, they have no information on who turns [it] up and who doesn't. "It's about three or four-tenths around here. That puts us easily back in the same position as the Mercedes. At the minute I wouldn't say we're any quicker." Rear tyres key to qualifying - Norris Norris stated after jumping out of the car that the grip was "horrendous" in the hot conditions. With similarly hot temperatures expected on Saturday, Norris explained keeping the rear tyres under control will be crucial in qualifying.  "It's just the conditions," he said. "It's hot, it's windy. It's more the temperature which makes such a big difference. "It is what it is, it's the same challenge for everyone. A big challenge is how can you look after the rear tyres in the best way possible. "We came into this weekend with a lot of information from the pre-season test but it's throwing all of that in the bin and starting again. "We're seconds off what we were doing. It's difficult but it's a good starting point for the weekend, plenty of things to work on."