Lando Norris finished 10th at the Qatar Grand Prix after spending much of the race contending for victory. The McLaren driver received a severe penalty for a yellow flag offence.
Norris failed to slow for double yellow flags on the start/finish straight. That led to a 10-second stop/go penalty, the harshest penalty the FIA can hand out short of a disqualification.
The British driver had started third and opportunistically taken P2 from Mercedes driver George Russell at the start. Max Verstappen inched ahead of polesitter Russell on the inside, and that opened the door for Norris.
Until the safety-car chaos, Norris hovered around two seconds behind the Red Bull. At the second of the three restarts, he slipstreamed Verstappen down the start/finish straight but the Dutchman mounted a typically aggressive defence to hold the lead.
Then came the outcome of the stewards’ investigation, which demoted Norris to last. He was by far the fastest driver on track as he fought his way back into the points.
The 24-year-old picked up an additional point for setting the fastest lap. He’s now just eight points ahead of Charles Leclerc in the fight for second in the championship.
Jenson Button suggests changes to F1 yellow flag rules after Lando Norris’ Qatar Grand Prix penalty
Speaking on Sky Sports F1 after the race, 2009 world champion Jenson Button called the penalty ‘unbelievably harsh’. He accepted that, according to the rules, it was correct.
However, he wants to see a bit more nuance in the laws. Alex Albon’s wing mirror detached and landed in the middle of the track, with Valtteri Bottas later running over it and scattering debris.
Button says Norris would have received the penalty if he’d failed to slow down when there were marshals on the circuit. But that would, in reality, be a far more egregious defence.
“The rules are the rules,” Button said. “They’re kind of stuck with ‘there’s a double yellow, we have to give him that penalty’.
“It sounds unbelievably harsh, compared to a car being upside down in the middle of the track, which is dangerous because there’s marshals on the track with a double-waved yellow, and there could be a driver stuck in the car. A wing mirror sitting in the middle of the track [is] very different, and that’s where the rule is the issue. It’s a set rule that needs possibly looking at for the future.”
Max Verstappen radio message shows the challenge facing Lando Norris in 2025
Red Bull reported Norris to the stewards after noticing that he caught Verstappen down the straight. The 27-year-old dutifully lifted off the throttle.
He then asked his team to check whether his rival had complied with the rules. This was the latest demonstration of his unparalleled guile.
Even if Norris has a quicker car at the start of the next year, he’ll have to deal with Verstappen’s track smarts. He’s now fallen 86 points behind in the standings.
That doesn’t necessarily reflect the reality of the 2024 title battle. But Eddie Jordan says Norris needs to study Verstappen footage and apply some of the learnings to his driving.
