Lando Norris attempted to play down McLaren's dominant-looking start after a strong practice session at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

McLaren finished both practice sessions fastest, with Oscar Piastri finishing 0.154 seconds quicker than Norris in the second, as the team recorded back-to-back one-twos.

Mercedes' George Russell was half a second behind the Australian, with Charles Leclerc behind him. Max Verstappen, who won in Japan last Sunday, came down in seventh, 0.825s off the pacesetter, with Lewis Hamilton a further 0.246s back.

McLaren lead both the constructors' championship standings heading into the fourth race weekend, with Norris also sitting top of the drivers' standings, and they appear to be the favourites to earn victory at Sakhir.

Rival teams once again highlighted the performance advantage of McLaren's car, but Norris believes their only benefit came from running their engines on a higher power mode.

"I don't think they turned it [the engine] up. Everyone just looks at the timesheets," Norris, who is looking to claim a 30th career podium in Bahrain, said. "They have no idea on the information on who turns things up and who doesn't.

"It's [worth] three or four tenths around here. That immediately puts us back in the same position as the Mercedes, so at the minute, I wouldn't say we're any quicker."

Finishing Friday on top of the timesheets #McLaren | #BahrainGP  pic.twitter.com/6MGIkUKt1u

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) April 11, 2025

Unlike his team-mate, Piastri remained confident in McLaren's apparent advantage as they topped the second session for the second weekend running.

However, he still expects a tight contest by the time it comes to qualifying.

"[The] one-lap pace looks strong, and the long run looked reasonable", Piastri said.

"For it [the gap] to be quite that big was a surprise, but I think the others will find a bit more [on Saturday], and it will be pretty close.

"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."​​​​​​​