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Oscar Piastri took pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix but McLaren suffered a blow when a mistake from Lando Norris left him much further down the grid than he wanted
Miserable Lando Norris declared himself “not quick enough” after a dismal qualifying was punished by title-chasing team-mate Oscar Piastri. McLaren dominated practice and were overwhelming favourites heading into qualifying despite their poor past record in Bahrain.
Piastri delivered their first ever pole position in the Gulf country, delighting the Crown Prince Salman who owns the McLaren Group through Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund. Their joy was tempered, though, by a mistake from Norris which left him sixth on the grid and in a horrible mood.
“I’m just not quick enough,” he said. Asked what had gone wrong, he bluntly replied: “Honestly, no idea, just not quick enough. It’s just another day, so I’ll look into things and see why I struggled so much today and try again tomorrow.
“I’ve been slow this whole weekend, to be honest, so it’s nothing too surprising. Honestly, I’ve just been off it. I don’t know, I feel like I’ve just never driven a Formula 1 car before. I’m struggling a lot, I don’t know why and I need to try to find some answers.”
There was a much brighter mood on the other side of the McLaren garage, though. Piastri became the first McLaren driver to even qualify in the top six in Bahrain since Daniel Ricciardo managed it in 2021, underlining how much of a bogey track this has been for the team in the past.
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But he was delighted with his lap and the progress he has made through the weekend so far. He said: “I felt confident out there pretty much all weekend. FP1 was an experience for us all I think – it felt more like a rally car than an F1 car – but from then on I felt really comfortable with the car.
“FP3 we had really good pace and qualifying the others caught up a little bit closer than what I wanted, but I still delivered the laps when it mattered, which is the most important thing in the end, so I’m very, very happy.”
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Max Verstappen thwarted both of them in Japan seven days ago but had nowhere near the required pace in his Red Bull to be a threat here. That was apparent minutes into the session when he reported over the radio: “There’s something really wrong with the car.”
Another message later in qualifying saw the Dutchman complain: “My brakes are just terrible. I can’t brake at all, so bad.” And speaking afterwards he wore a rueful smile as he said: “All weekend it has been difficult, just struggling on the brake feel and stopping power.
“And then, yeah, these tyres also had very difficult grip. We’ve turned the car around a lot and nothing seems to give a clear direction, so I guess that also shows that we are struggling with other things.
“I’m just trying to do my best. It’s been a difficult weekend for us. Tomorrow I’ll try to get as many points as I can, which I do every single weekend so it’s not like there’s any difference. I have no idea where we will be in terms of race pace, but at least we’re in the middle of the pack so, hopefully, a bit of excitement.”
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