F1 world champion’s impressive charge up the field at Spa goes unrewarded

Lando Norris has already had to endure many setbacks during this 2026 Formula 1 season, primarily of a technical nature. As a consequence, he was forced to use new control electronics at Spa-Francorchamps, which led to a ten-place grid penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix.

While a top result was virtually impossible for him to achieve after being bumped down the field notwithstanding bad luck on the part of his rivals, Norris went on an impressive charge in the race. The reigning F1 World Champion was the only top-team driver to begin the race on the hard tire compound.

However, a safety car at the start and two subsequent virtual safety car (VSC) periods thwarted his strategy. Also, he had a problem with his left rear wheel which did not go on cleanly during his only pit stop of the race, so it to took 7.8 seconds. As a result, Norris dropped down the field behind Gabriel Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar. While he managed to overtake the Audi driver in the closing stages, the gap on Hadjar was too great.

Norris eventually crossed the finish line with a 24-second deficit on Belgian Grand Prix winner Kimi Antonelli. However, he underlined the fact that his race pace would have been good enough for a podium finish on lap 44 by burning the fastest lap time of anyone into the asphalt, 1:48.890 mins, to secure his second DHL Fastest Lap of the 2026 season.

After the race, Norris said: “The potential was extremely high this weekend in terms of my feeling for the car and the pace being strong enough to probably challenge for a podium finish. When you have the pace to achieve a great result but are held back by challenging factors like that, it’s frustrating. We will now work to analyze what went wrong and learn from it before hitting the track in Hungary.”