Lando Norris frustrated by engine issue that cost him in Sepang qualifying

The McLaren driver qualified sixth on Saturday and one spot above team-mate Oscar Piastri

Lando Norris was left frustrated by a power unit problem that left him just sixth on the grid for the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

The McLaren driver was six tenths off Red Bull’s polesitter Max Verstappen at Sepang on Saturday, setting a 1m35.757s that put Norris just 0.005s ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri in seventh.

Norris reckons his deficit came via a lack of speed on the characteristically long straights in Malaysia, which he revealed has stemmed from McLaren failing to optimise its Mercedes engine.

“Yeah,” he replied when asked if he’s slower on straights because there’s still an issue with the power unit.

This problem affected McLaren at the start of the 2026 regulations, as customer teams had the disadvantage of not boasting pre-existing knowledge of the much more complex engines.

It took the reigning champions time to overcome that issue - Spa in July marked a step forward with McLaren receiving updated parts, but Sepang showed there are still improvements to make.

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images

“I felt like my lap was very strong,” said the defending champion Norris. “It's tough. I'm happy because I'm still struggling a lot in the straights everywhere.

“I'm just down on every single straight, so every time I get a good exit, I'm just slower at the end of the straight.

“It just hurts seeing this every single time. I should be higher up, not because I could have done a better job necessarily, but just because we're not getting everything out of the car that we need to.

“That doesn't [only] make my life tough today, but it also makes it tough for tomorrow.”

The Malaysian weekend has been a struggle for McLaren, who took 11th and 12th in FP1 and subsequently finished no higher than third in second and final practice.

So Piastri was not surprised by what happened in qualifying, claiming Sepang “really exposes” the weaknesses of the MCL40 and is not entirely optimistic for Sunday’s grand prix.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Photo by: Srinivasa Krishnan

“We looked reasonable in the long runs yesterday, but our runs were slightly shorter than everyone else,” said Piastri, with McLaren second on the long run averages, two tenths behind Red Bull.

“So for the amount of laps we did, it looks quite good, but not spectacular compared to everyone else.

“Obviously dirty air is a pretty big topic around here because there's a fair bit of high speed and very long corners so we'll have to wait and see.

“There's going to be a lot of strategy involved I think with the amount of deg there is, but I don't expect it to be a wildly different picture tomorrow.”