Lando Norris was forced to nurse his McLaren on the penultimate lap of the Chinese Grand Prix after his brakes began to fail, leading to a fun moment after the race when he described his struggles
Sky Sports F1 had to issue a cautionary message to their viewers after Lando Norris compared his problems at the Chinese Grand Prix to “going round a roundabout with no brakes”. He made the equivalence having been left with failing brakes in the final stages of the Shanghai race.
The drivers’ championship front-runner was hot on the heels of team-mate and leader Oscar Piastri in the final stretch of the race, aiming for full points when he noticed a worrying ‘long’ feeling in his brake pedal. He reported it to his team who had also spotted the problem and were concerned.
Norris’ race engineer, Will Joseph, advised Norris to back off from “hard braking” to secure second place as George Russell trailed by eight seconds. Yet as the race neared its end, his difficulties only intensified.
His pace dropped drastically on the second-to-last lap, which was nearly four seconds slower than the the Mercedes behind. Luckily for Norris, his brakes hung on for one last lap.
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But he admitted afterwards that any additional laps would have seen Russell swoop past and perhaps stopped him from finishing at all. While discussing the nail-biting situation with Sky Sports F1, Norris admitted: “I was lucky. Lucky to finish the race today, which is not something you want to be saying.”
“Brakes are something you hate but something you really do need and they can save your life. It was in a separate interview, also with Sky, in the paddock that he made his comparison.
He said: “It’s just the worst feeling when you go to press the brake and nothing happens and your foot just goes to the floor. I tried not braking[the] next time, I don’t advise that – try going round a roundabout with no brakes and then you kind of get the feeling of what it’s like.”
Natalie Pinkham, hosting Sky Sports’ coverage of the event in Shanghai, was quick to chime in and ask viewers not to try experiencing what that would have been like for themselves. “Don’t do that at home!” she hastily added, prompting Norris to say the same thing.
The Brit then went on: “A sketchy last couple of laps because the brakes were getting worse and worse every lap, and the last couple of laps, I’m three or four seconds off. So quite nervous.”
Team principal Andrea Stella shared how Norris’ quick thinking prevented a potentially catastrophic outcome and said: “Lando did a very good job together with the team to manage through the problem, adapting the driving style so that it didn’t become a terminal problem. So, not without some tension, we bring home a P1-P2.”
