Lando Norris gets grid penalty, Valtteri Bottas promoted to P12

© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.

Lando Norris will take a five-place grid penalty after McLaren changed the gearbox on his car following his high-speed crash in Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying.

The young Briton was involved in a high-speed crash which red flagged Q3 of Belgian Grand Prix Qualifying. Afterwards he was sent to the hospital for checks and an X-ray on his elbow.

Thankfully he is ok and will be able to race today. However, his car sustained damage and McLaren was forced to change his gearbox. Due to this he will have to take a five-place grid penalty.

This means Valtteri Bottas, who has a five-place grid penalty of his own, will be promoted to P12. On Saturday evening the Finn assessed his chances in the race.

“Definitely, the set-up wasn’t really for the wet,” the Finn said.

“As a team, we ran quite low wing levels too. I hope at least tomorrow at some point it is going to be dry and we will have overtaking.”

Valtteri was then asked if his race will be about “survival” if it rains?


If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!



“If it is like this, yes, getting to the end will probably get you already quite far but there will be opportunities.

“It is not the best place to start but today shows anything can happen and probably tomorrow it will.”

Bottas, who qualified 2.737s off the pace, says his lap was compromised by the traffic.

“I was sure with the feeling I had in the car that top three should still be possible and obviously Lewis got top three.

“But the issue in Q3 on my slow lap, I had to back off too much for traffic and I just lost tyre temperature.

“I immediately started locking up in the last lap and that’s why it was not great,” concluded the Finn.

Unfortunately for Valtteri we seem to be looking at a wet race today.

Follow us on Twitter @SilverArrowsNet and like us on Facebook!

Comments are closed.