The Briton qualifies sixth in Sepang, six tenths behind Verstappen, and admits that the MCL40 suffers on the straights. Piastri, seventh, acknowledges that he left performance on the table. Both expect a hard race marked by degradation.
Lando Norris has not hidden the reality. The British McLaren driver, reigning world champion, has admitted that his team is "very far from the pace" at the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, after a complicated qualifying in which he could only be six-tenths behind Max Verstappen's pole, a significant difference that reflects the difficulties that the MCL40 is going through at the Sepang circuit.
"There's not much I can do about it. I can only be satisfied with my own work. Yes, we are very far from the pace, but that's what there is. The car is suffering," Norris declared after the session. The Briton, who had never competed in Sepang, acknowledged that the Malaysian layout has surprised the team. "It's clear that everything has been shaken up a bit, but you expected Mercedes to be faster. It has been surprising to see how fast the Red Bulls have been all weekend, so maybe we are suffering more from the asphalt than we had expected," he explained.
Despite the difference with the leaders, Norris wanted to highlight his own performance. "My lap was good. In terms of putting my sectors together, of doing my best lap, I certainly did it on the last lap. We are very far, but as for my own performance, I feel I did a good job today," he stated. The Briton will finally start fifth on the grid, benefiting from the five-place penalty that Isack Hadjar, third in qualifying, will serve.
The prospects for Sunday's race are uncertain; Norris expects a demanding test, marked by tire degradation and the high temperatures of Sepang: "There's a lot at stake; we are still six tenths off Max's pace, and it's clear that the Red Bull is also a fast car with Isack up there. I think it will be a hard race; it will be new for us because I don't think we've had such high degradation this year. Tomorrow is going to be quite crazy, so let's wait and see," he noted.
Norris also highlighted one of McLaren's main problems in Malaysia, the lack of top speed: "My car is still slow on the straights for some reason, so it's going to continue being a hard race for me, harder than it should be," he lamented.
That limitation, which has already weighed down the team at other similar circuits, could be decisive in a race where overtaking will be difficult. Piastri, for his part, shared his teammate's frustration. The Australian qualified seventh, just behind Norris, and admitted that he could not extract all the car's potential on his last lap: "It was complicated out there, for sure. I think on my last lap I went through turn 2 and didn't have much grip, so I need to understand what happened there. Other than that, it was a decent session just that we are not fast enough yet," he explained.
The Australian also showed himself cautious about McLaren's options in the race: "It's going to be hard. I think our pace in long runs looked quite good yesterday, but those around didn't look bad either. We'll have to wait and see what we can do, but I think it's going to be a challenging afternoon," he concluded.
McLaren faces Sunday's race with the objective of minimizing damage and scoring the maximum possible points aware that the pace of its rivals is one step ahead.
