Norris 'just not good enough' in qualifying

Lando Norris has not won a race since the 2025 season opener in Australia

Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Venue: Imola Date: 18 May Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Lando Norris said he was "just not good enough" after qualifying fourth for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix with his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri on pole.

Norris was 0.292 seconds slower than Piastri, and likely faces a difficult race on an Imola track where overtaking is notoriously hard.

Briton Norris is 16 points behind the Australian in the championship after the first six races of the season.

"Never good enough in my final lap in 'quali'," Norris said. "Everyone goes quicker and I always go slower."

Norris' downbeat assessment of his own form reflected his struggles in qualifying this season.

The Briton dominated Piastri over one lap in 2024, when he was beaten only four times by his team-mate.

But changes in the way the McLaren car behaves over the winter have meant it suits him less than it did.

Combined with what team principal Andrea Stella describes as a "relatively numb" front axle, which is not giving Norris the "cues" he needs to drive at the limit, and Piastri has turned the tables.

This was his third pole in seven races - matching the total of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who joins him on the front row in Imola - to Norris' one. Piastri has won four of the six grands prix so far, Norris only one.

Norris said: "I'm not going to just blame the car. That's not me. I felt good all weekend. I felt good in Q1 and Q2. I felt like there's lap time available.

"But when I try and go for lap time, it just doesn't go. Clearly, there's a lot of things changed from last year.

"In my whole career, qualifying has been my biggest strength by a long way. This year, it's just not coming my way."

Stella, though, pointed out that Piastri had qualified fourth at the last race in Miami and had gone on to win.

"We have said since the start of the season that our car, which is a very competitive car, is not the easiest car to drive in qualifying conditions when you have an empty tank and you go for the last millisecond," Stella said.

"It's Imola, and now there is emphasis on the fact that Lando is P4, but let's just go one race back, and who was P4 in Miami?

"It was actually Oscar, but I don't think we talked very much about the fact that he was P4, and in fact he even won the race."

Norris said the race was going to be "tricky" for him and he had to hope for strategy to find a way forward.

He starts the race sandwiched between the Mercedes of George Russell and the improved Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

Alonso 'happy to be fifth' but wants more in 2026

Fernando Alonso, then with Renault, won in Imola 20 years ago, holding off Ferrari's Michael Schumacher in the closing stages

The Spaniard's showing was his team's best of what has so far been a difficult year and it comes as a result of a major upgrade on the car that has - at least partly - been influenced by their new managing technical partner, Adrian Newey, the design legend who joined in March.

Alonso's team-mate Lance Stroll qualified in eighth place.

"To be with both cars in Q3, it really lifts a little bit of pressure from the shoulders of everyone in the team," Alonso said.

"The package that we introduced yesterday, we had some positive results, but you never know until you go to qualifying.

"We need to keep the feet on the ground, and maybe the track characteristics, it does help the Aston, so we'll need to see in (the next races in) Monaco and Barcelona. But so far, happy with the improvement."

However, the 43-year-old emphasised that while he was "happy to be fifth", it was not close to his or the team's ambitions.

"I want to be in Australia (at the start of the season) next year and win the race," Alonso said.

"It's going to be a tactical race. As always in Imola, it's difficult to overtake. Less stops possible for everyone because then you cannot overtake on track.

"I expect to have a good start, good strategy, and let's see the pace. I think it's not as good as P5, so I'm ready to lose a couple of positions, but hopefully not too many."

Piastri spoke about his determination to ensure he kept the lead at the start.

"As long as I can get a good start, then (I'm) confident," he said. "It's a difficult track to overtake on. Our pace has been strong. Our long-run pace yesterday looked very encouraging. So, yeah, as long as I can get a good start and have a good first lap, then that would be good."

Verstappen, who said his car was better balanced than on Friday when he had struggled with race pace, said: "I'll just try to do a good start and see where I'm at with the pace, because yesterday wasn't particularly good in the long run also.

"And then, yeah, just see with the new set-up we have on the car. Hopefully it all sticks a bit better on the Tarmac and, hopefully, in general a bit more competitive."