Lando Norris endured a reliability-hit weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix after a sequence of hydraulics and ERS/battery faults severely restricted his practice running and left him at risk of a significant grid penalty. Norris called Friday “a pretty terrible start to the weekend” after a hydraulic leak curtailed his FP1 and forced him to miss the opening portion of FP2, including more than 20 minutes in the garage. McLaren then identified a battery/ERS-pack fault that required Mercedes HPP to replace the unit during FP3, keeping Norris in the pits until roughly the final 22–25 minutes of the session.

The battery issue was described as his third battery of the season; under the current rules drivers face limits on battery usage and McLaren warned that taking another new battery would trigger a 10-place grid drop. The mechanical problems left Norris short of vital long runs and high-fuel laps needed to dial in setup and energy management for Suzuka’s demanding surface. He completed just 17 laps in FP2 and 13 in FP3 and said he had “done no laps of high fuel” or “continuous laps,” leaving him “two or three steps behind” on setup work and “playing catch-up” all weekend.

McLaren carried out frantic repairs overnight and on-site interventions, and team figures including CEO Zak Brown and racing director Randy Singh said the squad would monitor the car closely, investigate whether the Japan battery fault was related to China’s earlier electronics failures, and weigh spare-usage choices to avoid repeat problems or further penalties. Despite the disruption McLaren managed some recovery — Oscar Piastri topped FP2 and Norris improved through qualifying to take fifth on the grid — but Norris acknowledged he had “underdelivered” on parts of his fastest lap and remained behind the leaders. McLaren stressed the Friday issues were a hindrance to setup and long-run evaluation rather than a definitive measure of race competitiveness, but the combination of lost track time, complex 2026 energy-management demands and the prospect of a grid drop left question marks over Norris’s race readiness at Suzuka.

Sources