Lando Norris shares F1 Saudi Arabian GP ‘jump start’ trigger theory

Lando Norris believes his near jump start at the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was triggered by a nearby light, or someone filming him.

The McLaren driver avoided a penalty despite appearing to jump the start in Jeddah after his car was seen briefly jolting forward, before stopping again, as the start procedure got underway.

Mercedes’ George Russell immediately reported Norris’ movement over team radio but the stewards decided to take no further action after it emerged that the FIA’s transponder had not been set off.

“I've never done this ever in my life,” Norris said ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix. “Since I did karting I've never done it, so I don't know what suddenly happened.

“You're so like just ready to go, but it's quite dark and there are so many lights. So I don't know if I've just reacted to a light elsewhere, either in the corner of my eye or somewhere in front, from people videoing or whatever it is.

“I reacted to something, but obviously quickly enough managed to stop. Then I've hurt myself in terms of the actual run down to turn one. I don't know if I can answer why it happened.”

Norris admitted he had been expecting to receive a penalty.

“I was waiting for something, my engineer to come across and tell me something, but never did,” he said.

“I don't know the true extent of how the rules work for it - at what point you have to be stopped, or how the transponder trigger works and all of these things.

“I was a little bit surprised. Yeah, but I didn't gain anything from it.”

However, he thought Sergio Perez’s creeping forward before the start was a more obvious penalty.

“This [Perez’s rolling] was more of a penalty than my one but it wasn't a penalty, right?” Norris added. “So again, I don't know what the ruling was for this and how they define this.

“In my eyes, you can easily see my one as potentially it should be a bigger penalty because I'm what people might think, pre-empting a start, which is normally the opposite, because I have terrible reactions.

“This one is a genuine advantage of actual starting procedure. My one, I wasn't trying to pre-empt: I'm just trying to react. And I've accidentally reacted, which is a mistake

“Whereas what happened with his car, and I don't know if he was doing it on purpose or what, so I can't comment on it, will help a start. But again, I don't know the rules are for it.”