Lando Norris reprimanded and fined for messy Brazil aborted start

Lando Norris has been handed a reprimand and a €5,000 fine for his part in the messy aborted start at the F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Crucially, Norris has avoided a sporting penalty which would have acted as a further blow to his fading title hopes after finishing sixth in Sunday’s wet and wild race at Interlagos, which rival Max Verstappen brilliantly won from 17th on the grid.

The original start in Brazil had to be aborted after Lance Stroll crashed and beached his Aston Martin in the gravel at Turn 4.

With Stroll stuck, the FIA elected to abort the start as the rest of the field began to form back up on the starting grid.

Despite the aborted start message being displayed and orange lights flashing, Norris pulled away once more to start a second formation lap.

Mercedes’ George Russell, who started alongside Norris on the front row, has received the same punishment as the McLaren driver for breaching Article 47.1 of F1’s sporting regulations.

“The FIA Formula One Race Director initiated the Aborted Start procedure indicating that the drivers should not leave the grid. This message was necessary as there was a car off track in Turn 4 (STR) that needed to be recovered. Although the signal was appropriately given the light panel illuminated as prescribed, and the teams notified by the messaging system, the driver left the grid and proceeded on a lap that he assumed to be an extra formation lap,” the stewards said.

“As the driver was on the front row of the grid this triggered following drivers to take similar action. At some point the Race Director realizing that for practical reasons all cars would now need to do an extra formation lap gave an instruction to the teams for all cars to proceed and return to the grid to follow the correct aborted start procedure.

“In the opinion of the stewards the driver NOR precipitated the action of the drivers on the grid directly behind him.”

Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson were also investigated but the stewards took no further action against the RB pair due to them being “influenced by the driver ahead” and therefore not being “predominately responsible” for the breach.