F1 LIVE | Follow Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix!

McLaren have showed great pace in the free practice sessions at the Bahrain International Circuit. After Lando Norris topped FP1, they improved further in FP2 and FP3.

The latter two sessions were topped by Oscar Piastri, who made a mistake on his lap in FP1. On Friday afternoon, Russell was five tenths behind the Australian who finished third. Meanwhile in Saturday's first session, he was six and a half tenths quicker than Norris and a bit more than eight tenths quicker than Charles Leclerc.

Therefore, teams would need to work hard to find the extra tenths to even be close to the Woking-based team's cars it seems.

In terms of the drivers' standings, only a single point separates Norris and Max Verstappen. Piastri is 13 points behind his teammate.