Norris Struggles, Piastri Shines in Japan

0:00On March 28, Lando Norris is starting 5th at the Japanese Grand Prix after getting out qualified by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piaestry, who's lining up third behind Mercedes-Polsider, Kimi Antonelli. Norris ended up 6-10s off the pace, while Piaestry sat about 4-10s behind the leader. Mechanical Gremlins hit Norris hard all weekend. A hydraulic leak cut his running in second practice where he only managed 16 laps to Piaestry's 28. Then in final practice, McLaren swapped his electric motor, so he missed the first half and completed just 13 laps total. Norris called it a tough weekend, saying he's been playing ketchup from the jump. He pointed to bad luck, with the issues, plus experimenting with car setups to learn more, leaving him short on high fuel and long runs heading into. The race. This is round 3 of the 2026 season, with brand new rules bringing lighter chassis and power units heavy on electrical boost. Teams are still figuring out these cars, especially on Suzuki's fresh,

1:02grippier tarmac that demands different driving. Limited practice bites harder now, as Norris noted at 26 years old, he's adapting to battery management, lifting co-spots, and setup tweaks. That weren't as critical before. Still, he's upbeat about his qualifying improvement in I as a strong push Sunday. I'm Corey with the story. That's your F1 news today update, AI powered and always on.