McLaren explain battery "anomaly" Lando Norris complained about

McLaren do not believe the battery issue which Lando Norris experienced at the start of the Belgian Grand Prix played a decisive role in his race.

Polesitter Norris lost the lead of the race to teammate Oscar Piastri on the first racing lap following an hour-and-a-half delay due to heavy rain and poor visibility at Spa-Francorchamps.

Following Piastri’s decisive overtake, Norris was heard reporting over team radio that he had encountered a battery deployment problem. Norris later denied the battery issue had cost him the lead and simply pointed to the extreme slipstream effect.

McLaren also moved to downplay the significance of the battery “anomaly”.

“In reality, when it comes to the usage of the battery at the restart, I understand that there was a slight anomaly which actually happened on both sides,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella explained to media including Crash.net.

“So, nothing that should have penalised Lando Norris in particular compared to Oscar. Still checking the data, but this is the initial feedback I received.

“So, I think the overtaking ultimately came because it’s very difficult for the car that leads the pack to actually arrive first in corner five.

“It’s not impossible, but it does require to have a decent advantage as you cross the finish line, which was not the case for Lando already at the restart.”

Did mistakes cost Norris victory?

McLaren allowed Norris to run a split strategy to give him the chance to chase down Piastri in the closing stages, but the Briton made three costly errors on his way to finishing three seconds behind the Australian.

Stella reckons the mistakes prevented Norris from challenging Piastri for the win, which has extended his championship lead to 16 points.

“Lando had a couple of lock-ups in corner 1 and also a little oversteer in corner 9 that cost him time,” Stella said.

“I think this, overall, prevented us from having an interesting battle, possibly, at the end. But in fairness, even Oscar had a couple of times in corner 1, a little bit of a time loss.

“It’s very difficult when you push so much in these conditions. It’s very difficult to always drive within the limit of the grip, and also it’s not easy to always keep the car on the racing line where you have the maximum grip, considering that you can lose it very rapidly because of the track being still a little damp.”