Lando Norris says Ferrari’s impressive pace in Friday’s F1 practice sessions for the Emilia Romagna Grand 🔜Prix is "not a shock".

Norris finished fourth at the season-opening B𒅌ahrain Grand Prix, confirming McLaren as F1’s third-fastest team behind Red Bull and Mercedes.

Ferrari appears to have a significant advantage at Imola as both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ended both practice sessions insid♈e the top six.

Conversely, McLaren struggled for pace,🍬 with Norris ending FP2 only ♔eighth fastest overall.

Assessing Ferrari’s impressive turn of pace at Imola, Norris says it’s not unexpected given how well the SF21 performed throug🦹h the corners in Bahrain.

"In Bahrain, they were definitely quicker than us in the majority of corners - not all of them - but here they look very quick," Norris told Sky Sports after FP2. "I don't think it's something we didn't expect. Maybe they're a bit quicker than we expected, but we🌃 knew some races they'd be ahead and some races we'd be ahead.

"It's Ferrari, if there's one team at the moment that's 💝going to make a big improvement somewhere it's them. So it's not a surprise. M🔯aybe that little bit faster than we anticipated, but not a shock."

McLaren struggled for pace at Imola lꦏast year, trailing Renault, AlphaTauri and Racing Point on pure performance.

Norris admits McLaren e𝄹xpected to be less competitive than it was in ꦛBahrain.

"It's not settled down to this track as easily as 𝄹it did to Bahrain," Norris added. "It's a little bit harder, but it's kind of what we expected from what we knew from last year. We struggled a little bit more here comparing to B♎ahrain too, but just some tracks the car goes better on.

"This is one of the ones we knew was going to be a bit tougher for us. But we made s𝓀ome good improvements from FP1 to FP2 so hopefully into tomorrow we can make another little step."