Lando Norris has admitted that he “paid the price for not doing well enough” after qualifying third as McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri set pole position for the Chinese Grand Prix.

And the F1 2025 World Championship leader is braced for a challenging race in Shanghai after revealing that he struggles personally with front-tyre graining.

Lando Norris to start third at Chinese GP as Oscar Piastri sets pole position

Norris’s victory at last weekend’s season opener in Australia sees him lead the Drivers’ standings for the first time in his career, but the 25-year-old has endured a challenging weekend in China.

Norris could only manage sixth in qualifying for the sprint race, dropping to eighth in the result after a mistake on the opening lap of the mini race, before abandoning his final lap of Q3 on Saturday.

It saw Norris trail Piastri by 0.152 in qualifying with Mercedes driver George Russell splitting the McLarens with a last-gasp lap for second on the grid.

McLaren head-to-head battle: Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Speaking in the post-qualifying press conference, Norris conceded that he is simply “not as comfortable” in China as he was in Melbourne a week ago.

Put to him that he had a tricky session, he replied: “It’s tricky for everyone, I think.

“It’s just tight and close, but it was a much better job than we did yesterday and I did yesterday, so the car was feeling much better and I was feeling definitely more comfortable.

“Just still too many mistakes from my side. I’m not as comfortable as I was in Australia.

“Just tricky, but it is for everyone and I just haven’t done the best job and Oscar has done a very good job.

“So still a good result, I’m still happy with P3.”

Despite the team’s impressive pace at the start of F1 2025, both Norris and Piastri have commented that the McLaren MCL39 has been difficult to drive over recent weeks.

With Piastri revealing that he considered abandoning his pole effort before a good end to the lap saw him overturn a two-tenth deficit on his previous flyer, Norris admitted that he has simply “paid the price” for not delivering.

Asked to explain the differences from Australia, he said: “The layout is very different here to Australia: much more medium speed, higher-speed corners there, some slow speed too.

“That and just the car. We’ve said it many times: it’s definitely the quickest car, but it’s still tricky to drive.

“We can easily do good sectors every now and then, but putting a lap together – even Oscar said he was two tenths down and then he’s gone for it and it’s stuck.

“But it seems just tricky to understand how to do it consistently enough, but when you do that kind of good job, then it can easily be the quickest car.

“So a couple things and just more my driving, just that rhythm of knowing exactly what to do, where, how much.

“Also when you have the tyres, if you push a bit too much on the tyres it can bite quite quickly too.

“Many different things, but also just Oscar’s done a good job and I’ve not done a perfect job and it’s tight, so I just paid the price for not doing well enough.”

More on Lando Norris and McLaren

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Norris went on to admit that he is downbeat over his prospects for the race, predicting that his own weakness with managing front-tyre graining is likely to be exposed over 56 laps at a front-limited circuit.

He said: “Oscar has shown a great pace, I definitely haven’t.

“Especially from the race pace and whenever we struggle with front graining, it’s something I just struggle with a lot personally.

“So it’s difficult for me. It’s been, therefore, a difficult weekend just trying to deal with those things.

“It’s something I’m not strong enough in.

“But I’ve got a long night ahead of me to sit down and go through all the data and see what I can improve for tomorrow.”

With the McLaren drivers opting to use just one set of tyres for SQ3 on Friday, performing two push laps with a cool lap in between while their rivals pitted for a fresh set of tyres, the team’s run plan has been cited as the reason behind the team’s underperformance in the sprint sessions.

However, Norris claimed that he “just did a terrible job” on Friday and insisted that McLaren’s run plan was not to blame.

Asked if he had taken any lessons from the sprint sessions, he replied: “Just don’t qualify as far back.

Put to him that the run plan was a factor, he said: “I don’t think it was so much run plan. I just think we didn’t get as much out of the car yesterday.

“I obviously locked up and I went straight and the car is easily quick enough for pole, so I just did a terrible job yesterday.”

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