McLaren finished fourth and fifth in Sprint Qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on October 9, with Oscar Piastri ahead of Lando Norris. In its assessment after the session, the team felt the MCL40 had moved closer to the front again at this circuit. Piastri improved by about 0.3 seconds on his final timed attempt on soft tyres, but also reminded the team that the extra grip from the softs was masking some of the car’s balance problems.
Two timed attempts, with the final lap changing the order between the team-mates
McLaren explained in its official post-session report that it used soft tyres in the third part of Sprint Qualifying (SQ3) and planned two flat-out timed laps. Both drivers left the garage at the start of the session to allow time for two cooling laps between their attempts. Even so, only seconds remained in the session when Piastri started his final lap.
After the first attempts, Norris was provisionally second and Piastri fourth. Norris could not improve on his final lap and subsequently dropped to fifth. Piastri, however, gained about 0.3 seconds to finish fourth with a time of 1 minute 31.454 seconds, 0.133 seconds ahead of his team-mate and just 0.055 behind third-placed Leclerc.
Both drivers had also come through an interrupted opening phase (SQ1). Neither had a valid time when the red flag appeared. After the restart, Norris soon completed the lap he needed to advance, while Piastri turned one attempt into a tyre-warming lap before completing a valid timed lap after the chequered flag had been shown. Both ultimately progressed to the next phase.
Soft tyres build confidence, but car balance remains a concern
Piastri said the car had been quite difficult to drive on medium tyres. The extra grip after switching to softs gave him greater confidence to push, making it feel almost like a different car. However, he also warned that the softs concealed some problems and that the team still needed to find a balance with which he felt more comfortable. Balance here refers to whether the car responds as the driver expects when turning and accelerating.
Norris, meanwhile, said in the team’s report that the car felt good overall and everything was working as expected, but that his own lap had not been perfect. The competition was very close, making it necessary to put the whole lap together. After finishing fifth, he identified reviewing the data and improving execution as his priorities.
Team Principal Stella felt that, at least in Singapore, McLaren was back in the situation it had experienced before Baku, with smaller gaps among the leading group. He also pointed out that its rivals had made progress recently and McLaren still needed to keep optimising its car. Fourth and fifth provided a starting point from which to fight for Sprint points, but had not eliminated the gap to the cars ahead.
INKA SPORTS analysis: leaving early creates time for a second attempt
Fitting two cooling laps between two flat-out attempts requires enough time for the entire run plan. McLaren sent both cars out at the start of SQ3, yet Piastri still began his final lap with only seconds remaining. That opportunity allowed him to improve by about 0.3 seconds and move from behind Norris to ahead of his team-mate. Norris, by contrast, could not improve on his first attempt and ultimately slipped from provisional second to fifth.
Piastri’s feedback that the car was difficult on mediums but inspired more confidence on softs shows that this recovery still depended on the grip supplied by the tyres. The team’s next task is to establish whether the balance problems concealed by the softs can be improved on other tyres and over consecutive racing laps.
Conclusion
McLaren put both cars in the top five and gave Piastri a final opportunity that brought him close to the top three. The next priorities are to carry the confidence he found on soft tyres into a fuller range of race conditions and to improve the quality of timed-lap execution. That explains why the team continues to look for improvements even as it welcomes a positive start.
