Norris and Russell fined and reprimanded, RB pair cleared for aborted start incident · RaceFans

The stewards have fined Lando Norris and George Russell €5,000 (£4,200) each for leaving the grid when the aborted start signal was given.

The two front row starters were also given formal reprimands for the incident. However no action was taken against other drivers who joined them in pulling away too soon.

RB pair Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who started third and fourth respectively, were also investigated, but cleared.

The incident occured after the race director aborted the original start. The decision to call off the start was taken after Lance Stroll spun at Subida do Lago, then drove into a gravel trap as he tried to recover and became beached.

After the start was aborted, Norris, on pole position, began to lead the field away. Several drivers immediately behind him on the grid followed. Eventually the rest of the drivers pulled away.

The stewards noted the signal to abort the start “was appropriately given, the light panel illuminated as prescribed, and the teams notified by the messaging system.” However in Norris’ case “the driver left the grid and proceeded on a lap that he assumed to be an extra formation lap.

“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, realising 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.”

The stewards deemed that Norris and Russell “precipitated the action of the drivers on the grid directly behind” them. In the cases of Lawson and Tsunoda they ruled “although the driver breached the regulation this was influenced by the driver ahead of him and as such he was not predominately responsible for the breach.”

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free