Norris admits McLaren ‘a long way off the pace’ after tough Qualifying in Malaysia

Lando Norris has conceded that McLaren are “struggling” in Malaysia as they find themselves “a long way off the pace” set by Red Bull, with the reigning World Champion qualifying outside of the top five.

Neither Norris nor his team mate Oscar Piastri had competed at the Sepang International Circuit before, so they took the time to make gradual progress throughout Free Practice before facing the challenge of Qualifying.

While Verstappen dominated the session for Red Bull, McLaren dropped behind both Ferrari drivers and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, leaving Norris to settle for P6. He will, however, start in the P5 grid slot as third-placed qualifier Isack Hadjar is set to receive a five-place penalty for an engine change.

Reflecting on his 0.6s deficit to Verstappen, Norris said: “There's not a lot I can do about that. I can only be satisfied with my own job. Yes, we’re a long way off the pace but it's just the way it is. [The] car is struggling.

“It's clear that everything's been shaken up a little bit, but you know that you expected the Mercedes to be quicker. It's been surprising to see how quick the Red Bulls have been all weekend, so maybe we're struggling more because of the tarmac than what we would have maybe expected.

“But my lap was good. So from my side, in terms of putting my sectors together, putting my best lap together, I certainly did that on the final lap. A long way off, but from my own performance, I feel like I did a good job today.”

With factors like weather and tyre degradation likely to impact Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, the Briton was reluctant to predict how the race will unfold for the Woking-based outfit.

“There's certainly a lot to play for,” he said. “We're still six tenths off the pace, off of Max, and it's clear that the Red Bull is also a quick car with Isack up there, and they've both done a good job.

“I think it'll be a tough race. It'll be a new one for us because I don't think we've ever had that high degradation this year. Tomorrow is going to be pretty crazy I think so let's wait and see.

“It's a long race, a lot of opportunities. My car is still slow on the straights for some reason so it's still going to be a tough race for me, tougher than what it should be.”

It was a similarly disappointing session for Piastri, who qualified just behind Norris in P7 and admitted that he left some performance on the table when it came to his final lap.

“It was tricky out there for sure,” the Australian explained. “I think my last lap I went through Turn 2 and didn't have a whole lot of grip so I need to understand what happened there.

“Other than that it was a decent session, just unfortunate to not quite get that last lap as good as I wanted it to be. I thought it was a pretty good session in general, just we're not fast enough yet.”

Asked whether he’ll be able to take the fight to their rivals ahead, Piastri responded: “It's going to be tough. I think our long run pace did look pretty good yesterday, but the others around didn't look bad. We'll have to wait and see what we can do, but I think it's going to be a challenging afternoon.”