Lando Norris in "catch-up" mode at F1 Japanese GP as struggles continue

The McLaren driver endured very limited running in practice, which put him on the back foot for the rest of the Suzuka weekend

Lando Norris is “playing catch-up” at the Japanese Grand Prix after the Formula 1 world champion was outqualified by McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri at Suzuka.

Norris will start Sunday’s race in fifth having qualified six tenths off Mercedes polesitter Kimi Antonelli, who was around four tenths ahead of third-placed Piastri.

Piastri has been a step ahead of his team-mate all weekend with a hydraulic leak limiting the reigning champion’s running in FP2, where Norris completed 16 laps to the Aussie’s 28.

But the mechanical problems continued into FP3 for the Briton, as McLaren was forced into replacing his electric motor causing Norris to only appear halfway through the one-hour session.

He ultimately completed just 13 laps in final practice, so his preparation was far from ideal for qualifying. When asked if this meant he was still catching up, Norris replied “it’s a mix of things”.

“It’s not just that,” he added, “it's also because I've tried more things with the set-up, with the car and understood more things.

“It's also that, it's hard to quantify that amount, but I've certainly been playing catch-up the whole weekend and even for tomorrow, I've done no laps of high fuel, I've done no continuous laps so certainly luck has not been on my side so far.

“I feel like I was getting better and better in qualifying and understanding how I can push the car more, so yeah, it's just been difficult there.

“I'm happy with the P5, the gap's still quite big to the guys ahead so it's not like I'm totally satisfied. I think there's things I should have done better and I didn't do well enough, but otherwise I'm sure with more laps I would have improved.”

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

This comes at round three of the 2026 campaign, which marks the debut of F1’s latest regulation overhaul with a chassis now lighter and a power unit that is more reliant on electrical energy.

As it’s early in the ruleset, teams and drivers are still learning the new cars so when somebody endures limited running in practice like Norris did, it’s understood that it puts them more on the backfoot than before.

When asked to confirm if that’s the case, the 26-year-old replied: “Yeah, 100%, a lot more, and it's still a new car and it's a new track where the tarmac's a lot grippier here.

“It's a new tarmac as well, it's a much quicker track so you have to drive the car quite differently to how we've driven the last few. You see how many mistakes people have been making, you know, into Spoon and things with the rear, and it's just not easy so certainly now it costs more than before.

“Not just as a driver, but also to understand how the power unit works, to get the battery in the right way and then you know you have to lift more in places, what you have to then adjust with the set-up because you have to lift more.

“There's a lot of little things. It's certainly not all the gap today. Some of it's just me not being on top form but it certainly costs more nowadays.”