Lando Norris has stated that his qualifying effort in Malaysia "hurts" as he felt helpless en route to his disappointing result.
Norris ended the day in sixth place, one position ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.
It marked a difficult showing for the Woking-based squad, who appeared to be the slowest of the top four teams on Saturday.
Norris pinpointed his struggles in a straight line as the major shortcoming on Saturday, insisting his input behind the wheel felt strong.
"I need to see the laps, I need to see what the good things or bad things from each lap were," he told media including RacingNews365
"Obviously, there's always a little bit in it as drivers, but I felt like my lap was very strong.
"It's tough, I'm still struggling a lot in the straights everywhere. I'm just down on every single straight.
"Every time I get a good exit, I'm just slow at the end of the straight, and it just hurts seeing this every single time."
Norris downplays race-day chances
Around the midpoint of the season, McLaren enjoyed a step forward in pace, with Norris bagging three pole positions in four races.
He even climbed to the top step of the podium in Hungary and the Netherlands.
But as he expects the straight-line struggles to carry over to Sunday, Norris is not expecting a competitive showing this time around.
"So I should be higher up, not because I could have done a better job necessarily, but just because we're not getting everything out of the car that we need to.
"That doesn't make my life tough [just] today, but it also makes it tough for tomorrow."
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