Lando Norris admitted McLaren simply did not have enough pace to challenge for pole position during qualifying for the 2026 Austrian Grand Prix despite showing encouraging speed throughout practice.
The Woking-based team arrived at the Red Bull Ring expecting to fight near the front after a strong showing in practice. However, Norris could only qualify sixth, while team-mate Oscar Piastri lined up seventh.
The result left McLaren behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Norris finished four-tenths adrift of polesitter George Russell, despite believing his best lap was already close to the maximum available.
"I feel like everyone was probably expecting more, even us. We were probably expecting a little bit more, just from a position point of view."
"I think my lap felt pretty good. It takes a pretty insane lap on a day like today to maybe get you a couple more positions, but they don't come around very often, and it's tricky to get that out of the car we have at the minute."
Norris accepted that McLaren's hopes depended on its rivals making mistakes in the final runs, but that scenario never materialised, leaving the team exactly where it deserved to be.
"We're happy to be as close as we were to some of them. You just hope that some of them don't do a perfect lap and make a couple of mistakes. That just wasn't the case today. So we are just where we deserve to be."
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