McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said on Saturday that he knows why his championship-leading team are struggling at the Singapore Grand Prix -- the bumpy street circuit.
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Max Verstappen won the last two races in Monza and Baku and again qualified ahead of McLaren duo Oscar Piastri, who was third, and Lando Norris, in fifth, at the steamy Marina Bay Circuit.
Like Baku, Singapore has a track made up of public roads, and Stella admitted that his competitors were coping better with the conditions.
"We entered qualifying to achieve a pole position," Stella told reporters.
"But we see a pattern now where we (struggle) with lots of braking, bumps and kerbs."
George Russell took pole for Sunday's race in the Mercedes, as he had done earlier this season on another street circuit in Canada where he went on to win.
"We saw in Canada and Baku and now today, that on this track layout, other cars are competitive," admitted Stella
The McLarens have dominated for most of 2025 but third-placed Verstappen, in the resurgent Red Bull, has closed the gap on Piastri and Norris to 69 and 44 points respectively with seven races to go.
Piastri crashed on the first lap in the most recent race in Baku and Norris trailed home seventh as Verstappen continued to whittle away their lead at the top.
Starting from the front row alongside Russell on Sunday, Verstappen will have in sight a first Singapore victory that would further fuel his hopes of completing a famous comeback and securing a fifth consecutive world title.
Norris admitted that the McLarens were now in a fight.
"Others have improved. Mercedes have done a good job. Red Bull have been good the last two weekends," said the Englishman who won from pole position in Singapore 12 months ago.
"Singapore has always been a bit of a weird one. We know we struggle whenever we struggle with the front tyres.
"I think we understand when you put two and two together, why we struggled. The front of the car is not strong enough, too much understeer so you have to make compromises.
"The tables have turned and everyone seems to be struggling a lot with the front tyres this weekend."
Piastri seemed bewildered at being four-tenths of a second off of Russell's pace.
"I think the start of qualifying we seemed pretty good, and then everyone else just seemed to find a lot of time and we didn't," said Piastri.
“That was a bit of a surprise, but it’s been a little bit weird this weekend. The tyres have been pretty tricky to switch on."