Piastri says Sepang exposed McLaren’s struggle to find pace

After qualifying for the 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Oscar Piastri said Sepang had exposed how difficult McLaren was finding performance from its MCL40. Piastri was seventh in the qualifying order; a five-place penalty for Isack Hadjar, who had qualified third, was set to drop Hadjar to eighth and move Piastri up to sixth on the grid.

Sepang’s long straights exposed the MCL40’s drag, while low-speed corners were another weakness. Piastri said the rough, tyre-punishing track meant he had to keep something in reserve to avoid losing performance; he added that one or two corners could feel uncomfortable as a result. He also said McLaren had improved over the weekend after being well off the pace in FP1.

His 1:35.762 in Q3 was just 0.005s slower than Lando Norris’s in the sister McLaren. Piastri was 0.632s off Max Verstappen’s pole time and 0.131s behind the fourth-place time set by Kimi Antonelli. He said the close margins were a good sign and thought there was probably more performance to find.