F1 champion Lando Norris rues 'unfortunate' FIA penalty at Belgian Grand Prix

Lando Norris

Lando Norris rues 'unfortunate' FIA penalty at Belgian Grand Prix

Lando Norris received a 10-second grid drop before the weekend had even started

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 19 July 2026 14:50

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McLaren F1 star Lando Norris has rued the fact that an FIA penalty means that he won't be fighting for the lead at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Norris put in a stellar performance in qualifying, putting in a lap time good enough for third at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, behind Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen.

But unfortunately for him, that third-place grid position has been taken away from him by a penalty which he picked up ahead of the Belgian GP weekend.

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The 2025 F1 world champion was handed a 10-place grid drop before the weekend for his McLaren team fitting a new control electronics unit outside of his allowed three for the season.

It means that Norris will instead start the race from 13th, and will have a job on his hands to make it into the points.

Norris expressed his disappointment following the session that his joint-best Q3 performance of the season has only resulted in such a lowly grid position.

Norris demoted at Belgian Grand Prix

Surprisingly, Norris has revealed that McLaren haven't changed too much this weekend, and that Spa-Francorchamps is just a good track for their car.

McLaren use a Mercedes power unit, and the home of the Belgian GP is a very power-heavy circuit, meaning teams with a good power unit are likely to excel.

"We've not really changed anything but we're a bit quicker on this track," Norris told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.

"It's nice to be standing here just not nice knowing I have to go 10 places back tomorrow.

"Unfortunate that this isn't genuinely where we are starting tomorrow because it would be nice to have a little bit of a fight with these guys but we made the most of it.

"It was still a very good qualifying, a very good lap for me. Honestly, I've been pretty happy all weekend. It's a little bit of a home race for me, so always a bit of a boost and I've performed well all weekend so far.

"So hopefully we can still have a good race tomorrow and have some fun. That's certainly the plan [to fight through the field]."