Lando Norris (McLaren): “Tomorrow’s going to be pretty crazy”

Although McLaren is competing amongst the top four teams at the Bahrain race weekend in Malaysia, it is trailing the leaders. In qualifying, Papaya could only manage 6th (Lando Norris) and 7th (Oscar Piastri) – though they’ll start one place further up the grid in each case due to a penalty.

Norris after qualifying: “There wasn’t much we could do. I can only be satisfied with my own performance. We’re well off the pace, but that’s just how it is. We’re struggling. Everything’s been a bit of a mess. We’d expected the Mercedes to be faster. It was quite a surprise to see just how fast the Red Bull Racing cars were all weekend.” Max Verstappen cruised to pole position, whilst Mercedes struggled despite an XXL upgrade.

Good lap, but pace isn’t there

We’re still investigating the causes within our own team. Norris: “Perhaps we’re struggling more than we might have expected because of the tarmac. But my lap was good – so, as far as I’m concerned, in terms of the flow between the sectors and putting together my best lap, I definitely managed that on the final lap. We’re still a long way off, but as far as my own performance goes, I feel I did a good job today.”

Nevertheless, it was only enough for 6th place in qualifying, which – thanks to Isack Hadjar’s grid penalty – will see him start 5th, on the clean pole side to the right. Given the performance in practice, though, that’s not too bad at all (outside the top 10 in FP1). Norris: “A lot is still possible tomorrow, but we’re still about six tenths off the fastest time. So that’s not the maximum yet, and it’s clear that the Red Bulls have fast cars too; both have done a good job. So I think it’ll be a tough race.”

The 2025 World Champion observes: “It’ll be a completely new situation for us, because I don’t think we’ve ever had tyre wear this severe this year. Tomorrow’s going to be pretty crazy.” With such heavy tyre wear, it’s likely to be a wild race with multiple pit stops. “That’s what I reckon, anyway. We’ll have to wait and see. It’s a long race with plenty of opportunities. But for some reason, my car is still slower on the straights. It’s going to be a very, very tough race for me – tougher than it really ought to be.”

Topic of the week

A stuttering start to the Bahrain Grand Prix: the FIA narrowly avoids a fiasco like the one in Indianapolis in 2005

Fans could hardly believe their eyes at what they witnessed at the Bahrain Grand Prix: cars crawling along, racing cars that simply came to a standstill. The FIA narrowly avoided a fiasco like the one at Indy in 2005.

Mathias Brunner

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