Lando Norris narrowly avoided a jump start penalty in Jeddah, expertly halting his MCL38 to evade sanctions.
Norris avoided a penalty for a jump start on Saturday in Jeddah, despite moving before the lights went out. The McLaren F1 driver managed to halt his MCL38 in time, which did not trigger the penalty sensors and spared him from a sanction.
“I stopped in time,” Norris stated, having never been in such a situation before. “I’ve never done that in my life and I don’t know why I did it. An investigation was conducted, and the matter was closed.”
The Briton does not understand why he moved too early, though he suspects it was an instinctive reaction: “Things happen so quickly, it was pure instinct… At that moment, you just react to something.”
“I don’t know if I saw another light, there are so many here. I don’t know if I saw something and my body reacted, but you’re so pumped with adrenaline that you react to anything.”
“Maybe I saw something turn off or another light come on and I went for it, but I realized quite quickly that I could avoid it. I managed to stop, there have been many other instances where people have stopped and were not penalized, so I’m happy about that.”
The sensor is authoritative as per Article 48.1 a) of the Sporting Regulations, determining whether a situation constitutes a false start or not. Here, Norris was not in such a situation and was thus able to race without penalty.
Norris Jeddah Penalty Avoided F1 2024. Norris Jeddah Penalty Avoided F1 2024.
- Wolff: ‘100% Sure We’ll Bridge the Gap
- Following us on Facebook and Twitter.
