Piastri ‘surprised’ by Mercedes' pole in Singapore Qualifying as Norris admits McLaren ‘weren’t quick enough’

Oscar Piastri admitted that he was surprised to see the Mercedes of George Russell outpace McLaren to take pole position in Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Australian having to settle for third while team mate Lando Norris was fifth on a day where he said the squad “weren’t quick enough”.

In a busy end to the session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Russell claimed provisional pole before going even faster to seal the position on the final runs, his lap of 1m 29.158s putting him 0.182s clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Piastri, meanwhile, was nearly four-tenths off Russell’s time in third. When asked after Qualifying if he felt that the result was the most he could have gotten out of the session, the 24-year-old responded: “More or less. I think there was a little bit left in it but not enough for pole.

“Ultimately I thought it was a pretty good session. It’s just been a pretty good weekend – very solid, no major hiccups or anything like that. I think ultimately we just didn’t quite have the pace, so we’ll try and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Pushed on whether it had been a surprise to see a Mercedes ahead in pole position – with Verstappen also in front – Piastri added: “It was a surprise, yeah. I think the start of Qualifying we seemed pretty good, and then everyone else just seemed to find a lot of time and we didn’t really.

“That was a bit of a surprise , but it’s been a little bit weird this weekend. The tyres have been pretty tricky to switch on.

“I think a few things changed from yesterday to today with the track and everyone’s just been pretty close, and anyone that nails it has been towards the front. So just one of those kinds of weekends, but third’s still not a bad result.”

On the other side of the garage, Norris conceded that he had felt more comfortable at the wheel of the MCL39 than during Friday’s running, but acknowledged that the squad were ultimately lacking pace in comparison to their competitors.

“I felt happier with the car today,” the Briton explained following his P5 result. “[It’s] just we weren’t quick enough, clearly. The Mercedes are much, much faster, and I’m sure between Oscar’s and my lap is a tenth in it or something, or maybe a little bit more, but not the four that that we need or the three and a half that we need.

“It is what it is, but still I just didn’t put it all together and you need to do that on a track like today, but I just didn’t.”

In terms of whether having a better feeling in the car gives him an additional sense of confidence for Sunday’s race, Norris answered: “Not really. This track’s kind of where you qualify is more than likely where you’re going to finish, but there are still chances so we’ll have to wait and see.”