Norris handed five-place Turkish GP grid penalty for failing to respect yellow flags

McLaren’s day went from bad to worse in Turkey on Saturday night, after Lando Norris was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags during qualifying.

It comes after his team mate Carlos Sainz was given a three-place drop for holding up Sergio Perez through Turns 2 and 3 in the one-hour session.

Sainz will now start 15th. Norris 16th.

READ MORE: Sainz handed three-place grid drop for Perez block as McLaren drivers rue Q2 tyre gamble

Norris set his best time of Q1 on a lap when there were waved double yellow flags for the Williams of Nicholas Latifi, which was beached in the gravel.

Stewards took a look at the telemetry and reviewed video and radio evidence and decided that he did not respect the flag as per the regulations.

As a result, he was given a five-place penalty, dropping him to 16th, and three penalty points on his licence, taking his tally to five for a 12-month period.

“Telemetry shows that Car 4 [Norris] slowed in the sector and resumed speed after the incident,” said the stewards. “Car 4 then asked his team if he should abort the lap, but was told to stay out because of the rapidly changing track conditions.

“Car 4 completed the lap, which turned out to be his fastest lap of Q1. While the stewards acknowledge that Car 4 was not attempting to set a quick lap time, due to the changing track conditions he nevertheless did so and thereby breached the referenced regulations.”

Speaking before the decision, Norris was upbeat about his chances in Sunday's race, providing it's dry.

"We struggled a bit for pace considering we were both out and we both didn’t have the pace to get into Q3," he said. "Maybe some things we need to work on with the car in these conditions and with this tarmac to make it a bit nicer and easier to drive. But I don’t think we were miles off.

“Tomorrow, hopefully it’s dry because I think we have better pace,” he added. “But if it’s wet then it’s going to be a tricky race.”

The double penalties are a blow to McLaren's hopes in the race for P3 in the constructors' standings, with just one point separating them from rivals Racing Point (who start P1 and P3) and Renault (who start P5 and P7).