Lando Norris finished 0.308 seconds behind McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri in qualifying in Baku, his heaviest defeat to his team-mate this season. The main problem with his MCL40 is straight-line speed: Norris's car loses out under acceleration and cannot reach its full top speed. Team principal Andrea Stella confirmed the issue is genuine, explaining that a shortfall of 1-2 km/h costs between 0.1 and 0.2 seconds per lap. Addressing the technical fault, Stella said it was something "we want to make a point about, because it's fair to Lando that we take the responsibility".
Notably, the deficit has been most pronounced in Baku and at Sepang, which hosted this year's relocated Bahrain Grand Prix, although Norris still edged Piastri by 0.005 seconds in qualifying in Malaysia. McLaren's engineers have yet to establish whether the fault lies with aerodynamic drag or an incorrect distribution of the power unit settings. Their analysis has shown that in the slipstream of another car, Norris's speed matches his team-mate's. The team are planning a comprehensive set of changes to solve the problem in time for the Singapore Grand Prix.
