Lando Norris (9th/McLaren): Remorseful after near-rear-end collision

At the restart following the safety car period in the closing stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Lando Norris (McLaren) was suddenly seen racing straight into the gravel trap immediately after George Russell (Mercedes) retired with engine failure. Replays showed that the 2025 World Champion had almost crashed into the rest of the field from behind, before swerving sharply out of the way at the last second.

What happened there? Why did Norris suddenly veer into the run-off area? Had he perhaps glanced to his right at George Russell, who had pulled over to the side with engine failure, and been distracted? Following the race, the race stewards launched an investigation into “erratic driving” in a Grand Prix that had already been full of oddities.

This is why an investigation was launched against Norris

The investigation centred on two alleged overtaking manoeuvres under the safety car (overtaking is prohibited!) and the near-collision with the drivers in front of him, which he was only able to avoid by swerving over the kerbs and into the gravel. Norris had to appear before the race stewards after the race. They reached the conclusion that Norris would get off with a warning.

The ruling states the following regarding the sequence of events in this unusual situation: “The car with start number 63 (George Russell) had come to a standstill before Turn 1 due to a technical problem, which caused the cars ahead of Norris to slow down. Norris explained that, due to the low sun and the resulting visibility conditions, it was difficult to see that the cars ahead had begun to slow down earlier than would normally have been expected. Norris subsequently misjudged his approach speed and was closing in on the cars ahead too quickly. When he realised this, he braked heavily and deliberately steered left onto the kerbs and then into the gravel trap to avoid making contact with the cars ahead.”

In doing so, he briefly overtook his team-mate Oscar Piastri. However, this was not penalised: “Although Norris briefly overtook Piastri, this occurred solely because Norris left the track whilst performing an evasive manoeuvre. Piastri immediately overtook Norris again whilst Norris was off the track. The race stewards therefore concluded that this did not constitute an overtaking manoeuvre and took no further action regarding this aspect of the incident.”

Topic of the week

Nicolo Bulega: Toprak’s successor will not fail in MotoGP

The Italian Nicolo Bulega is the first rider to have won the world title in both the Supersport and Superbike classes; from 2027, he will be racing in MotoGP. His performances this season are second to none.

Ivo Schützbach

Read More

TV Program

Live

Singapur: Rennen Re-Live

FIA Formula One World Championship

11.10.2026 - 11:15

That’s why the warning was issued

Regarding the near-collision, the stewards wrote: “The need for heavy braking and an evasive manoeuvre into the gravel trap indicated that Norris had not maintained an appropriate safety distance under the circumstances. The race stewards therefore found that Norris had driven erratically and had thereby breached Article B5.13.2a of the FIA F1 Regulations. Such a situation should not occur whilst driving behind the safety car, and Norris was obliged to maintain a sufficient distance from the vehicles ahead. However, as Norris reacted immediately upon realising the situation and successfully avoided a collision, the Race Commissioners consider a warning to be appropriate.”

In addition, an investigation was carried out into whether Norris had overtaken Lance Stroll under the safety car upon returning to the track – here too, he was cleared of any wrongdoing, as with the first overtaking incident.

“I really can’t blame anyone but myself”

And what did Norris himself have to say on the matter? The Briton said: “From my vantage point, I simply couldn’t see how much they’d slowed down on the racing line. Ultimately, it’s my job to assess such situations, but this was simply a completely unusual situation, and of course it threw me off course. I really can’t blame anyone but myself, but in that situation I simply couldn’t have done anything else.”

Bizarre: Last week in Baku, Norris had made a big fuss when he was forced off the track by Franco Colapinto, and called for the Argentine to be suspended from the race. Colapinto’s wheels locked up after the restart, taking out his Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly and Lando Norris. Now Norris was suddenly the ‘erratic’ driver.

But it wasn’t just the trip into the gravel that made the race difficult for Norris: the race got off to an unfortunate start for him because he’d started on mediums – i.e. dry tyres – on a wet track and fell back. But beyond that, McLaren had lacked pace this weekend. In the end, he could only manage 9th place.