Lando Norris said McLaren were “quite a long way off” in Friday practice at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The Briton, who is 62 points behind title rival Max Verstappen heading into the weekend, said his team were 0.3-0.4 seconds slower than the front-runners on the Baku track.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the pace, 0.006secs ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes third, 0.066secs off Leclerc.

Norris was 17th fastest after being held up by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly on his fastest lap, but he said team-mate Oscar Piastri’s fifth place, 0.5secs off the pace, was “more where we are”.

“If we nail it we are just about there,” Norris said. “But I’m sure they are not even close to nailing it yet.

“We have quite a lot to find compared to Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. They are all very similar and then there is a good 0.3-0.4secs gap back to us. A lot of work for us to do.”

McLaren said before the race weekend that they would “bias” their support towards Norris and ask Piastri to help if the circumstances arose.

Norris has to close an average of just under eight points a race on Verstappen to beat the Dutchman to the title, which he has done over the last two races in the Netherlands and Italy.

Norris said the low-grip conditions in Baku were working against McLaren.

“We always know that Ferrari are very quick here,” he said. “With these track conditions Mercedes are going be very quick.

“It is very slidey out there. We perform very well in the higher grip circuits naturally and the track is way off where we were last year.

“I’m finding it difficult at the minute but we will work hard tonight. The car is still not bad. I’m sure we can still get a lap time out of it but we are not as clearly ahead as we have been at other races.”

However, despite his bleak assessment, Norris’ lap was a match for Leclerc’s fastest time until he came across Gasly on the final straight.

And Piastri appeared to be among the fastest cars on a race-simulation run on heavy fuel later in the session.