McLaren disclosed what led to improved form in Suzuka qualifying

McLaren delivered one of their strongest qualifying performances of the season at Suzuka, confirming the encouraging signs that had emerged after Oscar Piastri topped FP2 on Friday.

While the team still lacks the outright pace to challenge Mercedes, they succeeded in beating both Ferraris and positioning themselves firmly at the front of the chasing pack. Piastri secured an impressive third place on the grid, just 0.354s off pole‑sitter Antonelli and a mere 0.056s behind George Russell, while Lando Norris recovered from another disrupted practice programme to take fifth.

Norris’ weekend had been complicated from the outset, with a series of issues limiting his track time, including a battery problem that cost him valuable laps in FP3. Given the circumstances, the reigning World Champion was satisfied with what he managed to extract from the car.

“I have to be happy with P5. Considering the number of issues we've had throughout the weekend and the laps we've missed. It’s a good result and a credit to the team for the underlying pace in the car, and for their hard work in fixing the various issues we’ve had,” he said.

The lack of rhythm, however, has left him on the back foot heading into Sunday. “It’s been a difficult weekend, constantly playing catch up and never really getting into a comfortable rhythm. We’ve definitely taken a step forward and seem closer to our competitors here, which is a positive sign, but the lack of running has certainly hurt my preparation.”

With no long‑run data to rely on, Norris expects a challenging race. “Heading into the race, I'm on the back foot. With no high-fuel running, it’s tricky to know how the car is going to behave or how to manage the tyres and battery over a race distance.

"I'm not as confident as I'd like to be, but the car is quick, and Oscar did a great job to get P3, so it shows what's possible. I'll do my homework tonight to learn as much as I can, but a lot of it will be learning on the go. It’s not ideal, but we're in a good position to fight.”

Piastri, meanwhile, enjoyed a far smoother build‑up and delivered a superb qualifying performance that underlined both his consistency and McLaren’s progress. “A good Qualifying session today, it was nice to be in the top three and closer to the leading team, so overall we can be pretty happy with this afternoon’s result,” he said.

“All weekend, I think we’ve looked reasonably good, and the team has executed every session well, getting things right for the moment across each day, which is pleasing.

While Mercedes still holds a clear advantage, Piastri sees meaningful steps being made. “We clearly don’t have the pace or the grip to match Mercedes still, but we’re getting closer and that’s the most important point in our on-track performance. There are plenty of positives today, and it was good to be able to qualify ahead of Ferrari too.

"We’ll now continue to work hard to make important further gains as a team overnight, working on power management and exploiting maximum performance in preparation for the race tomorrow.”

Team principal Andrea Stella echoed that sense of progress, highlighting both the competitive gains and the operational resilience shown by the team.

“Today was a positive step for us, with clear indications of progress in competitiveness. Oscar has been fast all season and showed it again, and Lando delivered strongly despite issues in every Practice session,” he said. Stella credited McLaren’s improving synergy with Mercedes’ power unit engineers as a key factor.

“Our improved collaboration with the Mercedes HPP engineers is helping us unlock more from this power unit, and combined with better setup work on the MCL40, we’ve been able to cash in some lap time. A Qualifying result of P3 and P5 today reflects where we realistically are right now, fighting with Ferrari, while recognising that Mercedes remains a step ahead on pure pace.

"We know Ferrari tend to gain relative pace in the race, so podium contention will be hard fought, but we’ll be there to take opportunities.”

Reliability, however, remains a concern—particularly the recurring issues with the Mercedes‑supplied battery module. “We’re not blind to the areas we must improve.

Reliability, particularly the recurring issues on the battery module supplied by Mercedes HPP – today's one that forced us to fit a third energy store unit in Free Practice 3 – is something we’re working to stabilise as we assess whether the second battery can be recovered,” Stella explained.

He also praised the team’s effort to get Norris back on track after FP3’s scare. “I’d like to recognise the hard work by the team in getting the car back on track for FP3, at one point it didn’t look like that would be possible.”

Looking ahead, Stella made clear that upgrades are coming—and that McLaren’s ambitions are rising. “Above all, we need to bring upgrades, which is the plan for the next race, so we can fight more steadily for podiums and, later in the season, for wins.”