It's like I've never driven an F1 car - Norris

Bahrain Grand Prix

Venue: Sakhir Dates: 11-13 April Race start: 16:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Race live on BBC Radio 5 Live. Live text updates on the BBC Sport website and app

Lando Norris said he felt "clueless" and "like I have never driven a Formula 1 car before" after qualifying sixth for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Briton's McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri took pole position, while Norris was 0.426 seconds slower than the Australian.

Norris said: "No big complaints. The car's amazing. The car's as good as it has been all season, which is strong.

"Just I've been off it all weekend. I don't know why. Just clueless on track at the minute. I don't know. I just need a big reset, that's all."

The 25-year-old leads the world championship by one point from Red Bull's Max Verstappen and is 13 ahead of Piastri before Sunday's race.

Verstappen qualified seventh, while Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, Mercedes' George Russell, Pierre Gasly's Alpine and the second Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli are between Norris and Piastri on the grid.

Norris said: "I just don't know how to approach it. I can't figure it out. Every time I try something, it's good for one session and then it's the wrong thing for the next session because the wind's changed, and I just can't flow with the car. And when I can't flow, I'm just not very quick.

"I've just got to work on myself. I can't fault the team and the car is the best by a long way. But clearly I'm just not clicking at the minute."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said Norris had suffered from a weakness that has been afflicting him since the start of the season, in that he is struggling to extrapolate the best from the car in qualifying because of certain handling characteristics it has.

Stella said: "Lando is a very fast driver, a naturally fast driver with an incredible race-craft. It's more a phase, I think, when it comes to Q3, putting together the lap, that hasn't worked very well recently, but this is a short phase.

"He is just now in this temporary phase in which, while pushing the car to the limit, there's a few things that don't go exactly as he expects, and when you go for the extra 0.1secs in Q3, this becomes more visible.

"We understand what it is. It will just require a bit of adaptation from Lando himself, and some adaptations from the team. But I think the understanding is good, and we are very optimistic that this will be resolved."

Stella said that the issue does not manifest itself in races, when drivers are not pushing as hard.

"This doesn't affect the race pace," Stella said. "Already in practice Lando has shown a very strong lap in the race run simulations, so I'm really looking forward to seeing Lando finding his way back tomorrow to the front of the pack."

Lewis Hamilton was another driver struggling to explain his deficit to his team-mate.

The seven-time champion qualified ninth, six places and 0.597secs behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was promoted to second on the grid because of a penalty for Mercedes' George Russell.

Hamilton said: "Not much to say. I'm just not doing a good enough job. Have to keep improving. I will try and see if I can get in the top five. We will see. Clearly the car is good enough. Certainly not a good feeling, for sure."

Pressed for how he will improve in qualifying, he said: "I really don't know. I really don't have a lot of answers for you guys. Just wasn't quick today."

Ferrari have been disappointed by the pace of their car so far this season, notwithstanding Hamilton's victory in the sprint race in China at the second grand prix.

Leclerc said he had been trying "extreme" car set-ups in trying to find more pace.

"At the beginning of the season, we obviously weren't where we wanted to be," Leclerc said, "and since two or three races I've gone in an interesting direction setup-wise, which seems to help me to extract a bit more out of the car. That's what I'm trying to do every weekend. For now, it seems to be better and better, which is a good sign for the future."

Ferrari have a new floor on the car in Bahrain, which Leclerc said had worked as intended but should prove a bigger advantage at other races to come.

"The team has done a really, really good job. We've all pushed quite a lot in the last few weeks because we've been struggling with performance.

"I know that at the factory they've been pushing like crazy to try and bring this floor a bit earlier on, and that definitely made the difference.

"Because if I look at the gap with P4, it's not that much and I'm pretty sure that without the floor I wouldn't be P3. So that's already one position won.

"I'm curious to see what it will do tomorrow [in the race]. However, it's probably not the best track to extract the maximum out of this new upgrade, but in the next few weekends we shall see more of it."

Verstappen, who suffered a problem with the braking system on his Red Bull as well as inconsistent grip, said he was hopeful of being able to fight with the cars behind the McLarens in the race.

"In the past, high-deg tracks have been good for us," Verstappen said, "but with the balance we had today it will be very difficult. But of course I am only looking forward. The McLarens will be too quick but the others we can follow."