Nothing gets past Max Verstappen, and that includes a false start for Lando Norris at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Unfortunately for Norris, Verstappen had a crystal clear view of his grid box positioning and made sure to point out his error, with the FIA stewards handing out a five-second time penalty.

Norris foiled again by detective Verstappen at Bahrain GP

It was a disappointing qualifying for both Norris and Verstappen in Bahrain, championship leader Norris managing P6 only on the grid as McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri took pole, while Verstappen was forced to settle for P7.

Norris made a storming start, moving up to P3 on the opening lap, though Verstappen spotted a problem, and it soon turned into a five-second time penalty for Norris.

With Norris having positioned his McLaren too far forward in his grid box, the stewards launched an investigation over a potential false start, Norris found guilty of such an error and penalised.

And even though Verstappen had his own race start to attend to, he still had the wherewithal to notice that Norris was not correctly positioned in his grid box, and took to Red Bull team radio to point that out, far from the first time that Verstappen has used that channel of communication to draw attention to his F1 2025 title rival.

“Lando is over his grid box,” Verstappen stated.

The penalty would ultimately prove costly as Norris narrowly missed out on the chance to secure a McLaren one-two, George Russell holding firm despite fighting electrical and braking issues in his Mercedes to finish runner-up.

Key talking points after the Bahrain GP

👉 Russell explains cause of Bahrain DRS issue which triggered FIA investigation

👉 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix – F1 standings after Round 4 of F1 2025 season

Addressing the grid box mishap after the race, Norris said it was simply an error which he should not be making, and suffered for.

“I mean, at the beginning, I was too far back, so I tried to creep forward and creep forward and did the opposite,” he said.

“So, first time ever, I’ve never done this in my life. Shouldn’t happen, but it did, and I paid the price for it.”

Norris gave a brutally honest self-assessment after qualifying on Saturday, as he opened up about a struggle to truly click with the McLaren MCL39.

He was happier with his performance in the Grand Prix, but there is still a way to go.

“When I was in P3 I was pretty happy,” he said. “I knew it was going to be tough to get past George, you know, they’ve not been that bad this weekend, and one-and-a-half tenths off pole position, so they’re clearly not struggling.

“So I didn’t expect to get past that easily, and I mean, I didn’t at all.

“I was happy. A good opening lap, aggressive and attacking, which I needed to be. But then I had the penalty, and everything got a lot worse. So I had the penalty, I boxed earlier than everyone else, had to push more to try and make up five seconds. Just about made it up. But then I’m on much older tyres, and kind of paid the price for that again.

“Just every time I did one thing good, I did two bad in a way. And just kept stopping myself from making as much progress as I should have done today.

“So, I mean, I’m happy that the pace was there, difficult to overtake. Clearly, the dirty air is just horrible. I’m [more] happy with my pace today than I was yesterday, but still just not in the best feeling with the car at the minute.”

Read next: ‘Everything went wrong’ for Max Verstappen with Bahrain GP woes analysed