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

Norris finished fourth at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, confirmi✨ng 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 ended𒁏 both practice sessions inside the top six.

Conversely, McLaren struggled for pace, with Norris en🦂ding FP2 only eighth fastest overall.

Assessing Ferrari’s impressive turn of pace at Imo🔯la, Norris says it’s not unexpected given how well the SF21 performed through the corners in Bahrain.

"In Bahrain, they were definitely quicker than us in the majority of corners - not all of the🌌m - 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 so🍰me 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 iౠmprovement somewhere it's them. So it's not a surﷺprise. Maybe that little bit faster than we anticipated, but not a shock."

McLaren struggled for pace at Imola last year, trailing Renault, AlphaTauri and Racing Poi🥃nt on pure performance.

Norris admits McLaren expected to be less competitive🙈 than it was in Bahrඣain.

"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 Bahrain too, but just some tracks the car goes be🤡tter on.

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