Lando Norris: Oscar did a better job than me.

      Lando Norris qualified third in Shanghai, losing to pole holder Oscar Piastri by one and a half tenths of a second. The McLaren driver admitted that he didn't get as good a lap as his teammate, and this is due to the fact that the MCL39 car is difficult to drive.

      Q: Lando, how difficult was qualifying for you?Lando Norris: I think it was difficult for everyone. The gaps are minimal, but I did a much better job today than I did yesterday. The car handled much better, and I was much more comfortable behind the wheel.

      However, I made too many mistakes. I wasn't as comfortable as I was in Australia. It's difficult on this track, but everything is on an equal footing. Oscar did a great job, but I didn't do so well. Nevertheless, it's a good result – I'm happy with the third place.

      Q: Tell us about the lessons that you learned from the sprint qualification and applied in today's qualification?Lando Norris: The only way is not to qualify that far.

      Q: In terms of the track program, was everything exactly the same as Oscar's?Lando Norris: Yes. I don't think we had any special program. It's just that yesterday I couldn't get the most out of the car when I locked the wheels and drove straight ahead. The car is fast enough to take pole position easily, but I did a terrible job yesterday.

      Q: Let's talk about the race. How confident are you about tomorrow's prospects?Lando Norris: I think Oscar showed great pace, whereas I definitely didn't, especially if we're talking about race pace. And every time problems with granulating rubber start, they show up much more strongly for me.

      It's been a difficult weekend, but I'm trying to deal with these issues. I'm not strong enough in this aspect yet, but I have a long night ahead of me to study telemetry and figure out how to improve tomorrow.

      Question: You said that you don't feel as comfortable driving as you did at the last stage in Australia. Can you tell us more about this? Is it related to the route features?Lando Norris: The route configuration in China is very different from the Australian one – there are more medium-speed and fast turns, but there are also slow ones. As for the car, I've said many times that it's fast, but it's difficult to drive.

      You can easily drive through the best sectors, but putting them together in one lap is not easy. It's hard to figure out how to get stability out of a car. But when it can be done, the car turns out to be the fastest. So it's about these things and my driving – you just need to find a rhythm and know where and how hard you can attack. If you overdo it, these tires can quickly lose their effectiveness.

      It's about a lot of parameters, but Oscar did a great job, whereas I didn't do so well. With such a density of results, I paid the price for not doing a lap well enough.