Lando Norris Reveals Major Silverstone Struggle in 2026

Lando Norris described most of his British Grand Prix Sprint Qualifying session as extremely poor after brake-duct damage disrupted the balance of his car. The McLaren driver narrowly survived SQ2 before a late repair allowed him to recover to sixth position.

The damage occurred during SQ1 and continued to affect the MCL40 throughout the second phase of qualifying. Norris was only 10th fastest in SQ2 and progressed to the top-10 shootout by 0.081 seconds over Pierre Gasly.

“It hampered me a lot more than I thought because we only fixed it for the final run,” Norris said.

Baca JugaLando Norris Ungkap Masalah Serius di Silverstone 2026

“The guys did a good job fixing it, but after that the car was completely different and much better again,” he added.

McLaren’s mechanics completed the repair before SQ3 and the change in the car’s behaviour was immediately visible. Norris moved from the edge of elimination to sixth, finishing only 0.032 seconds ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri.

The British driver nevertheless believed the repair arrived too late for him to maximise the available performance. He only regained confidence during the final lap, when there was little opportunity left to understand the car’s revised limits.

“It felt pretty shocking for most of the session. We were lucky to fix it because afterwards it felt like a completely different car,” Norris said.

“By the time I got the feeling back on the final lap, I thought we could have pushed much harder. The pace was more or less there, but today was unfortunate,” he added.

The problem compounded an already difficult start to the weekend at Silverstone Circuit. Norris finished only seventh in FP1 and was more than one second behind Lewis Hamilton’s pace-setting Ferrari.

Looking towards the Sprint, Norris believes McLaren may be capable of fighting Red Bull in the leading group. Mercedes, particularly through George Russell, appeared to possess a stronger level of performance based on Friday’s running.

“The cars around us, maybe Red Bull is one we can potentially compete against. George’s Mercedes clearly looks a lot quicker,” Norris said.

Starting sixth limits Norris’ immediate opportunity to challenge for victory, but the brake-duct repair demonstrated that the MCL40 had more performance than its early-session results suggested. McLaren’s priority is now to prevent a repeat of the problem and convert the improved balance into positions during the 2026 British Grand Prix Sprint.