McLaren miles off pace in Baku practice - Norris

Lando Norris said McLaren were "miles off" the pace after the first day's practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The world champion has won two of the past four races, and would likely also have been victorious in the last race in Madrid had it not been for the unfortunate timing of a virtual safety car.

McLaren were hoping for a step forward in Baku after introducing a significant upgrade package to their car.

But Norris was sixth fastest, 1.484 seconds off the pace set by Mercedes driver George Russell, after the first day's running.

"We're up there," Norris said. "Relatively, we're in the position we expect to be in, but I'm 1.5secs off the pace, so pretty pants.

"We'll see what work we can do tonight but it's a little knife in the heart when you see how far off you are."

McLaren are one of several teams to bring a major aerodynamic development to Baku, theirs focusing on revised bodywork shaping around the sidepod air inlets, engine cover, floor and diffuser.

Chief technical officer Rob Marshall said: "We've introduced a significant upgrade this weekend and the initial data suggests the car is behaving as our simulations predicted, which is a positive starting point. However, it's clear we haven't yet unlocked its full potential."

Russell headed both practice sessions, with the F1 weekend running unusually from Thursday to Saturday because it is Azerbaijan's national remembrance day on Sunday.

The Briton led team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 0.552 seconds in the second session. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was Russell's closest rival in the first session, when Antonelli suffered a hydraulic failure, and third fastest in the second session.

Antonelli's reliability problems also meant he missed the first half of the second session, and overall he had half the amount of running of Russell.

The Italian, who leads the championship by a massive 81 points from Russell, said: "We tried to do the max with what we had. Lost quite a few laps in FP1 and then missing half off FP2 is never ideal, especially in a street circuit.

"But overall I feel it was a good recovery. I feel quite good in the car. A few things to work on but looking forward to tomorrow."

McLaren's rivals rejected the idea that they were struggling badly.

Red Bull technical director Pierre Wache said: "Mercedes are quicker. McLaren looks a little bit quicker or similar to us."

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said: "The McLaren was very quick but they never finished their lap."

And Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said he did not "think the gaps are representative".

Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad had his second crash in consecutive race weekends in practice, clipping the wall on the exit of the tight chicane leading into the section around the castle.

In the context of the day, the margin between the two Mercedes drivers is to be expected but Antonelli is likely to close in on Friday in the run up to qualifying.

Mercedes spent the first half-hour of the second session finishing off the repair to Antonelli's car, which involved an engine change.

That meant he had to go straight into his performance runs on the soft tyre, having missed set-up and development time at the end of the first hour and the beginning of the second.

Verstappen was 0.4secs slower than Russell in the first session, and 0.827secs adrift in the second.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were next, but more than a second off the pace.

Hamilton said: "For some reason we're just lacking speed."

Vasseur added: "(The drivers) were not very pleased with the balance so we have a lot of work to do to find a good solution for tomorrow."

Behind Norris, Alpine's Pierre Gasly was seventh, ahead of the the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri and Red Bull's Isack Hadjar, who is competing again after missing three races because of a broken wrist.

Williams and Audi were other teams with major upgrades, Williams' focusing mainly on reducing their car's weight.

Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were 16th and 17th fastest, the Spaniard saying he "felt a step forward as expected" but that he had suffered a "scrappy day" with issues with brakes.

"In general I felt a bit better with the car but it looks like we are a bit closer to the midfield," he said.