F1 broadcaster apologises after Lando Norris' Spanish Grand Prix interview

Lando Norris, McLaren, Canada, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 on TV

F1 broadcaster apologises after Lando Norris' Spanish Grand Prix interview

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Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 12 September 2026 19:06

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David Coulthard was forced into an apology on live TV immediately after Spanish Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday.

Coulthard was interviewing surprise polesitter Lando Norris after the Brit jumped out of his McLaren, with the clearly hyped-up driver letting a little bit of foul language slip out.

The Scottish former driver apologised to the audience, joking that the adrenaline of Norris' brilliant, unexpected pole lap might've led to the slip of the tongue.

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The reigning world champion was consistently lagging behind some of his biggest rivals throughout practice and the first two parts of qualifying, with both Mercedes drivers and both Ferraris broadly outpacing him, as well as the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

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Norris delighted (and surprised) by Spanish GP pole

"I'm shocked," Norris told Coulthard. "I'm a little bit surprised to be here now, but my God, it was probably one of the best laps I've done ever in my career. So very, very happy, very proud, very happy for the team. It was just one of those laps where everything came together.

"I had a good idea of what I wanted to do, but it was whether my brain let me do it on the last lap, and everything pretty much worked perfectly.

"So I'm just very happy. One of those laps where you look at the lap time at the end, and you're like, oh, oh s***, that was pretty good."

"With the adrenaline you might have used a small swear word," Coulthard noted, "so apologies to our audience.”

Of course, Norris' little slip in the interview was nothing compared to what he was saying to his race engineer Will Joseph after his lap – believing that he'd erred at the last corner and calling himself a 'f***ing idiot', complaining that he'd 'f***ed up'.