In last year’s championship fight between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, the pair’s performance on the first lap of each race had a significant bearing.
Norris was consistently one of the weakest performers at the start of races. In contrast, Verstappen was regularly among the best.
That often allowed Verstappen to neutralise the McLaren’s superior performance over a single lap. Norris might beat him to pole position, but Verstappen could often beat him to turn one, as at Zandvoort and the Circuit of the Americas.
As was widely noted at the time, when Norris claimed the sixth pole position of the Singapore Grand Prix, he had failed to keep his lead on all previous five occasions. Finally, he kept his lead that time. But by the end of the season no other driver who started every grand prix made worse starts than Norris. On average, he lost one place in every two starts he made.
Verstappen, in contrast, had one of the best averages of any driver. Heading into the final round of the year he had never lost a place at the start of a grand prix and gained an average of 0.65 positions. He then ruined his average in the dead rubber Yas Marina finale by clattering into Oscar Piastri.
Nonetheless, it’s clear which of the 2024 championship contenders was the better starter. As the graph below shows, if either Verstappen or Norris changed positions on the first lap of a grand prix last year, usually the former went forwards and the latter fell back.
Over one five-race spell at mid-season, Verstappen gained ground while Norris fell back every time:
Verstappen started well, Norris poorly at Spa last year
However that pattern appeared to change over the first half-dozen starts of 2025 (including China’s sprint race).
The season-opening race in Melbourne looked like business as usual, as Verstappen sprang forward from third on the grid to split the McLarens. The Red Bull has often looked particularly good off the line in low-grip conditions, and on that damp day in Albert Park it clearly got away better than the MCL39s which occupied the front row.
He hasn’t been able to make up a place since then, however, losing two places at the sprint race in Shanghai and one in Bahrain. Then came Jeddah where Verstappen took pole position but was beaten to turn one by Piastri – and cut the corner to stay ahead. He may have started lap two in the lead but the manner in which he did earned him a penalty which doomed him to defeat.
*2024 races were in different order to 2025 **The stewards ruled Verstappen illegally regained the lead from Oscar Piastri by cutting turn one
Norris, meanwhile, has been doing better than last year. He only lost places at the start of the sprint race in Shanghai – although he kept his sixth place to begin with, he ran wide halfway around the first lap.
Elsewhere Norris has tended to make up places. It’s true he was penalised for being out of position at the start in Bahrain, but it’s doubtful that being slightly ahead of his marks was the sole reason he made up three places.
At this early stage in the current season, it remains to be seen how significant this change in last year’s trend is. This handful of new data points could be skewed by some circumstantial details.
Both drivers have been penalised for lap one incidents
For example, Norris’s position gain in Jeddah was aided by Yuki Tsunoda colliding with Pierre Gasly. And we have not yet seen how the drivers perform at some of the tracks with especially long runs to turn one.
But it’s clear to see how the increasing competition at the front of the field might have had an effect. For example, Verstappen headed two Red Bull front row lock-outs over this run of races last year, and could rely on Sergio Perez avoiding any risky half-moves going into the first corner. Verstappen’s two pole positions this year have come by tiny margins and it remains to be seen whether his latest team mate will join him at the sharp end soon.
What is also clear, highlighted by Verstappen and Norris’s start-related penalties over the last two rounds, is that making the best possible start is as critically important as ever. Particularly when it makes the difference between spending the first stint in traffic and dirty air or gaining the benefit of a clear road ahead.
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