'It's all of them': Oscar Piastri delivers grim assessment of McLaren's Chinese Grand Prix woes

Oscar Piastri has delivered a grim assessment of his McLaren's performance after a disappointing qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Piastri will start Sunday's race from fifth ahead of teammate Lando Norris, but was nearly half a second down on the Mercedes of pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli.

Speaking after the session, the Melburnian conceded McLaren is down on their Mercedes rivals basically everywhere.

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"I think we are a bit behind at the moment - the order is probably about where it should be," he said.

"I think it's all the corners really - we're not weak in one particular place.

"We probably did a better job today of maximizing the power unit which was good, but we're just lacking grip at the moment."

Teammate Lando Norris said the McLarens are losing more than a tenth of a second down each of the Shanghai circuit's long straights, a deficit which is nearly impossible to overcome in the corners.

Losing so much time in a straight line is usually down to out-and-out horsepower of the engine, but given the same engines powering the Mercedes is mounted in the back of the McLarens, the deficit will no doubt raise eyebrows at the team's UK base.

"We need to understand why ... a tenth and a half is almost three positions today," Norris said.

"Give or take, I think where we are now (is) where we deserve to be and where we should be.

"We're close to the Ferraris and we definitely want to give them a fight tomorrow, but it was clear today they have advantages which we struggled to get on top of.

"It will be hard to challenge them, but you never know. We'll give it a good shot."

The race will begin at 6pm (AEDT) Sunday.