McLaren driver Lando Norris has been pictured with bandages after sustaining a facial injury ahead of next weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
Images surfaced on social media on Saturday evening showing Norris nursing a cut to his face while partying on a boat in the Dutch capital of Amsterdam, where the McLaren driver was believed to have been revelling in the Koningsdag (King’s Day) celebrations.
Lando Norris suffers facial injury in Amsterdam.
It is thought that Norris, 24, cut his nose on broken glass. His participation in the Miami GP, one of three United States-based races on the current F1 calendar, is unlikely to be in doubt.
Norris’s accident comes after an impressive start to the F1 2024 season, in which he has collected 58 points – 20 more than highly rated McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri – to sit fifth in the Drivers’ standings.
Having claimed McLaren’s first podium finish of F1 2024 in Australia last month, Norris produced a fine performance at the recent Chinese Grand Prix to finish second, denying the dominant Red Bull team a fourth one-two finish of the new season.
That came after Norris set an impressive pole position for the sprint race in Shanghai, with his fastest lap in a rain-affected qualifying session 1.261 seconds faster than second-placed Lewis Hamilton.
Norris was unable to convert pole into a maiden F1 victory, however, finishing a distant sixth in the mini race after running wide at the first corner.
Five years after arriving on the grid with McLaren, Norris continues to hold the all-time record for the most F1 points without a win, having scored 691 points since his debut in 2019.
Despite a volatile driver market in 2024, Norris committed his future to McLaren in January by signing a new multi-year contract with the team.
Earlier this month, the respected F1 reporter Mark Hughes claimed Norris had rejected an offer from Red Bull – who turned down approaches from multiple World Champions Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – before inking his new McLaren deal.
However, former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer has argued that Norris’s McLaren extension could turn out to be a shrewd move given Max Verstappen’s track record of punishing his Red Bull team-mates.
Writing in a column for the official F1 website, Palmer said: “He committed his future to McLaren over the winter, which is an interesting choice given the turmoil in the driver market right now.
With seats open at both Red Bull and Mercedes, time will tell if that is the smart move, but with the way that McLaren are improving right now there aren’t many better places to be in the short term.
Palmer added: “As tempting as a Red Bull seat would be, the way that Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez have been annihilated by Verstappen would make anyone think twice about joining a team so galvanised aro
und a superstar driver.”
