McLaren was able to maintain its position as midfield leader from 2020 during the opening weekend in Bahrain last month when Norris finished fourth, falling only behind Mercedes and Red Bull vehicles.
In Friday’s Imola practice session, Ferrari took a big step forward from its performance in Bahrain when Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished both sessions in the top six.
Sainz finished the FP2 as the leading Ferrari in fourth place behind Mercedes vehicles and Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri, with teammate Leclerc just behind in fifth despite a late fall.
For comparison: Norris could only finish the eighth day for McLaren and drove over six tenths slower than his former team-mate Sainz.
Ferrari’s leap forward didn’t surprise Norris, however, who said the signs of his true pace were already evident in Bahrain.
“In Bahrain they were definitely faster than us on most corners – not all – but they look really fast here,” Norris told Sky Sports.
“I don’t think we didn’t expect that. Maybe they are a little faster than we expected, but we knew they had some races ahead of them and some races ahead of us.
“It’s Ferrari, if there is a team right now that is going to make a big improvement anywhere, it’s them.
“So it’s not a surprise. Maybe a little faster than we expected, but not a shock.”
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Norris led McLaren’s efforts through the second practice session at Imola, when teammate Daniel Ricciardo finished 18th in the FP2 standings.
Norris felt that the McLaren MCL35M was not adapting to the demands of the Imola circuit as quickly as it was three weeks ago in Bahrain. He said the team “hasn’t got the car in a great location”.
“It’s not as easy to find your way around this track as it is on Bahrain,” explained Norris.
“It’s a bit more difficult, but it’s what we expected from what we knew from last year. We have a little more problems here than in Bahrain, but the car only drives better on some tracks.”
“This is one of those that we knew would be a little trickier for us. But we’ve made some good improvements from FP1 to FP2 so hopefully we can take another small step by tomorrow.”
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