From Sprint dominance to qualifying struggle
After dominating the Sprint race, McLaren found itself facing a much tighter and more competitive field in Saturday’s qualifying session. Following Lando Norris’ pole position in Sprint qualifying on Friday, the British driver could only manage fourth place on the grid for the main race.
Ahead of him were an outstanding Kimi Antonelli in pole position, followed by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. The reigning world champion was not as sharp as he had been earlier in the weekend, making a few small mistakes that cost him crucial time.
A similar pattern was seen with Oscar Piastri, who will start from seventh place, behind Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari. However, attention now turns to Sunday, with rain once again expected to potentially shake up the competitive order.
Norris: “Others simply did what they had to do”
In this second phase of the 2026 Formula 1 season, Lando Norris’ Sprint dominance was challenged in qualifying for the main race. The leading McLaren will start from fourth on the grid, with the British driver not as flawless as he had been on Friday.
“I think we still did a good job,” said Norris after the session. “I just think the others did a poor job yesterday and today they simply did what they were supposed to do, honestly. So not many complaints.”
“Today it was definitely a bit more difficult with the car, the wind and the temperatures. The car didn’t work as well anymore and for some reason I struggled a bit more, but not because we changed anything. It was simply different conditions and the others did their job.”
Norris also pointed to a battery-related issue during his final Q3 attempt.
“To be honest I think we are where we deserve to be. We had more issues with energy usage. I started my final lap with less charge for some reason. From the beginning I was compromised and we need to understand why.”
McLaren confident despite setback
Despite the drop in performance compared to earlier in the weekend, Norris remains confident in McLaren’s overall pace.
“We are not far off, I think two or three tenths,” he said. “It’s not like we went from day to night. I think the others improved and we had a few more difficulties. I don’t think people gave us enough credit for the job we did yesterday compared to others. We were clearly faster, and that’s why I was very happy with yesterday’s performance and this morning’s session, where we maximised everything.”
Looking at the competition, Norris was not surprised by the level of performance shown by rivals.
“I said yesterday it would be quite close with Mercedes. In all corners they were more or less as fast as us. They just had a few issues, and clearly Max with Red Bull was strong as well, so I’m not surprised. As a team we are surprised to have struggled so much today, but I don’t think Mercedes’ pace is a surprise in terms of pure performance.”
Leave a Reply