Norris blames Sepang tarmac as McLaren struggle in Bahrain GP qualifying

McLaren's Lando Norris blamed the unique tarmac surface of the Bahrain Grand Prix circuit for his team's struggles during qualifying. Norris, the current world champion, qualified sixth-fastest, just six-tenths of a second behind pole sitter Max Verstappen of Red Bull. However, Norris will start fifth after Red Bull's Isaac Hadjar received a grid penalty, dropping him from third to eighth place.

Norris told reporters, "We are just slow. The car's not good enough here." He attributed Mercedes' and Red Bull's performance to the challenging tarmac surface, as well as McLaren's general lack of pace throughout the weekend. Norris stated, "My car is struggling with speed on the straights and we've lacked general pace all weekend."

Teammate Oscar Piastri qualified seventh-fastest but will start third due to Hadjar's penalty. Piastri commented, "Not quite the session we wanted. We're struggling a bit for pace here. But overall, I was reasonably happy with things." He added, "An extra tenth (of a second) would have been good... We were just not quick enough here unfortunately. It's going to be a race where we can do a lot with strategy - and then hopefully pace."