Stella: It's a repeat of what we observed in Canada and Baku.

      According to Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, today’s qualifying results are explained not only by the fact that Red Bull Racing and Mercedes have clearly improved, but also by the particular layout of the Singapore circuit.

      Andrea Stella: “We started qualifying intending to fight for pole, but we now see that on a track with this kind of layout the other teams’ cars are more competitive. It’s a repeat of what we saw in Canada and Baku, which also have frequent braking, as well as bumps and kerbs.

      As usual, we recover some time in the mid-phase of the corners, but here that phase is too short. At Marina Bay the dominant factors are braking and effective traction of the driven wheels on acceleration, and it seems we have some issues because of the bumps and kerbs.

      The drivers’ comments are very similar to what we heard in Canada and Baku, i.e. on those tracks where our car wasn’t the quickest. And the same thing has happened here.

      But there are some other elements, too: this year we are dealing with a new front tyre, and Lando Norris has been saying since the start of the season that he finds it difficult to get the front of the car to work effectively.

      A year ago our drivers were much more comfortable driving on the Singapore circuit. This time they were unhappy with the behaviour of the front tyres from the first practice. It was less pronounced on Hard and Medium compounds, but it was exactly the case when running the soft tyres.

      Nevertheless, we gained important information that will be useful to us – the team continues to learn and move forward. After all, at the Singapore Grand Prix we are starting from decent positions and are confident that the hard work and thorough preparation we will do today will allow us to fight for a podium or even a win on Sunday.”