Oscar Piastri: We currently don't have the pace to compete with Mercedes.

      Oscar Piastri qualified third in Suzuka, which is his best result of the season. The Australian McLaren driver was brief after the session but was pleased with his starting position.

      Lando Norris qualified fifth – this is also his best starting position of the season.

      Oscar Piastri (3rd): “We’ve been doing well in qualifying this year, but it’s still nice to make it into the top three. I think we look good this weekend and are making the most of every opportunity that comes our way.

      You see, we obviously don’t have the pace or the level of grip to fight with Mercedes yet. But we are closing the gap, and that’s the most important thing.”

      Lando Norris (5th): “There’s no doubt that losing time in practice affected our ability to test different setups, get comfortable in the car, and run long runs to prepare for the race. For example, I didn’t work on a long run with a full tank at all, so it was tough for me throughout the weekend, including in qualifying. I was constantly having to make up for lost time.

      I don’t want to say that today’s gap is solely due to that. I’m definitely not in perfect shape, I couldn’t extract the maximum and made a few mistakes on the last lap. But I feel like almost everyone made a few mistakes or was a bit slower, except for a few drivers.

      Overall, I think I did a good job and I’m happy with fifth place. The gap to Charles Leclerc is very small, and that’s a bit frustrating because it’s minimal, but otherwise, I think I handled it well.

      Could it have been better? Yes. But it could have been much worse, so I’ll take this result and try to prepare as well as I can for tomorrow.”