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McLaren's Lando Norris was left frustrated after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, where power unit complications restricted him to sixth on the grid.
The reigning world champion finished six-tenths adrift of Red Bull's polesitter Max Verstappen. Norris posted a 1:35.757 lap at the Sepang International Circuit, narrowly edging out McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in seventh by just 0.005 seconds.
The Briton attributed the deficit to a lack of straight-line speed along the Malaysian circuit's long straights, pointing to McLaren's struggles in extracting maximum performance from their Mercedes power unit. It has been an ongoing issue for customer teams since the introduction of the 2026 technical regulations, given their limited early experience with the more intricate hybrid units. Despite making strides with upgrades at Spa in July, the team's display at Sepang highlighted that there is still significant ground to make up.
"My lap was very strong, but it's a difficult situation. I'm pleased with how I drove, yet we're still losing a huge chunk of time down the straights. Every time you get a good exit out of a corner, the top-end speed just isn't there by the end of the straight. It's painful to see lap after lap. We should be further up the grid—not because I could have done anything differently in the car, but because we aren't getting the maximum out of our package. It didn't just hurt us today; it makes our task for the race far more challenging," Norris said.
It has been an uphill battle for the Woking-based outfit all weekend in Malaysia. After ending opening practice in 11th and 12th, McLaren failed to break beyond third place in any of the subsequent sessions.
Oscar Piastri admitted the qualifying outcome was hardly unexpected, noting that the Sepang layout exposed the weaknesses of the MCL40 chassis. The Australian remains equally measured regarding his prospects for Sunday's race.
"Our long-run pace looked reasonable yesterday, even if our stints were shorter than our rivals'. Relative to the laps we completed, the data looked solid, though nothing extraordinary. Dirty air will be a massive factor around here because of the series of high-speed, long-radius corners. High tyre degradation is going to create an intense strategic fight, but I don't anticipate the competitive order changing dramatically in the race," Piastri remarked.
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