Lando Norris was overwhelming in qualifying for the Sprint race of the Chinese Formula 1 Grand Prix. On his final lap, he clocked in at 1m57.940s, beating Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) by 1.261s.
Initially, the lap of the McLaren man was invalidated, as he had a track excursion on the last left-hand corner of the Shanghai circuit on the previous lap. In fact, he crossed the white line that marks the limits with all four wheels, with the ones on the right even touching the gravel.
Since it was a track excursion with all wheels, the rules were applied with the immediate cancellation of the two laps. However, moments later, Norris’ time was unusually reinstated. Why?
The explanation is simple. The automatic elimination of laps that exceed track limits aims to prevent drivers from gaining an advantage from the situation – and, in the specific case of that corner, the following lap is also invalidated for the same reason.
The truth is that the race control decided to reinstate the lap in question, and Norris celebrated the pole position for the Sprint race. All because it was concluded that not only did he not benefit from the infringement, but he even lost time.
Andreas Stella, chef d’équipe de McLaren, a expliqué à Sky Sports F1: ‘Ils ont peut-être pensé que c’était le cas, je pense que s’il était sorti au dernier virage, cela aurait des implications sur le tour suivant. Le tour suivant est celui de la pole et ce tour est complètement propre. Donc, il n’y a aucun problème du tout. Cela a été confirmé par la FIA elle-même. Et clairement, en sortant de piste dans ce virage, vous vous lancez à une vitesse beaucoup plus basse. En fait, Lando perd près de trois dixièmes parce qu’il est sorti de piste dans le virage précédent’.
