Antonelli’s fourth place was the first relatively bright moment for the Mercedes upgrade that was introduced in Malaysia but about which the team have question marks.
Although it shows in the data to have more downforce than the previous specification, which Russell is running this weekend, it has proved difficult to access that.
In that context, for Antonelli to be only 0.189secs from pole could appear to be a promising step forward after being only seventh in sprint qualifying on Friday, even if the upgrade was still expected to deliver more performance than so far has been the case.
Russell, who crashed out of the sprint at the end of the first lap, said he had competed in qualifying “mainly just to make sure the car was feeling as it did yesterday after the crash but it didn’t quite feel the same”.
He added: “I had great pace yesterday. We were in the top three every lap I completed. And today I wasn’t in the top five at any point throughout the session so we need to understand why that is.”
McLaren had hoped for a step forward this weekend after struggling in the past two races but fifth and seventh marked only a small amount of progress for the world champions, despite flashes of promise through the weekend.
Norris said: “In the end we’re where we should be. Nothing has changed so no reason why we would suddenly be on the pace. I could put good bits together, but the car is just too much of a challenge, I have to feel like I am almost crashing to put in a purple sector but you just can’t do that, the tyres don’t survive, the car is too difficult to be in that perfect limit when it’s quick.”
Norris addressed the incident with Piastri on the final lap of the sprint race, when an attack by the Briton into Turn Five led to them colliding, and turning what had been fourth and fifth places into an eighth for Norris and retirement for Piastri.
Norris said: “There are two sides. One is what the stewards say and that’s a fair reasoning, no-one’s to blame.
“But I did apologise because it was still me attacking, as I had the right to do. If I just sat there and was boring like I should be, nothing would have happened. So really it’s still my fault but I deserved to go for the space and I still believe I had the right for it.”