A week ago, during qualifying at the Mexican GP, Lando Norris was left with a lot of “coulda, woulda, should’s.” Why? Because he knew he had the pace to put his McLaren on pole for the race. But because of his own mistakes and an unfortunate incident, the 23-year-old was left thinking about what could’ve been. Instead of being on pole, he qualified in P19. A week later, he’s having a sense of deja vu at the Brazilian GP, because just like last weekend, where he got bumped up a few places due to others’ penalties, George Russell has come to his rescue this time.

After Lando Norris could only manage a P7 in changing weather conditions (that are probably his Achilles’ heel), he was absolutely beyond himself. Who wouldn’t be after they thought they could lead the field off the line on Sunday? Either way, the only silver lining now is that he’ll start higher than where he qualified for a second week running.

A penalty for George Russell could work wonders for Lando Norris

After starting the Mexican GP in P17, Norris finished in P5. When asked how he pulled that off, the Brit simply said that starting toward the back gave him that extra drive to come forward. While he would’ve wanted this weekend’s qualifying to go a little smoother, that didn’t happen. Following a disappointing P7, he said, “I don’t even know how to feel. Because the car really came alive in qualifying and would have easily been good enough for P1. That’s why I’m disappointed.” George Russell has given him a little less to be disappointed about now.

Going back to the Mexican GP qualifying, George Russell blocked the pit exit to create a gap to the drivers in front, for which he was investigated by the FIA. The FIA let him go with a warning there, but he didn’t learn his lesson. This time around, instead of parking his car at the pit exit, he was driving extremely slowly, and not even on the far left. Considering Interlagos has one of the longest pit exits on the calendar, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly crossed the exit line and sped up, only to be dangerously blocked by Russell.

The FIA didn’t need another invitation (although Russell gave them one by repeating this with Charles Leclerc) to investigate the Mercedes driver again. After a few hours of deliberation, as per F1 journalist Chris Medland, the FIA has given a “Two-place grid drop for Russell for impeding in the pit lane.” This has played right into Norris’ hands who qualified right behind Russell’s P6 effort.

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Despite the scruffy qualifying performance, though, Russell is optimistic for Sunday’s race.

Can George Russell convert a penalty to a podium?

Last year, Russell had arguably his best weekend in Formula 1 at the Brazilian GP. After qualifying in P3 for the Sprint (the format for Sprint weekends was different last season), he won the 100km dash. As a result, he qualified on pole for Sunday’s race and converted that into a maiden F1 win. Considering how good the weekend was last season, a P6 (which is now a P8) would be a disappointment. He said so himself, but he’s confident he can still make the most of it.

In a post-qualifying interview, Russell was asked if a podium was in the cards. He replied, “Yeah, definitely. For sure, there’s a podium. Aston [Martin, whose driver qualified in P3 and P4] seem to have found their form again. That was surprising where they’ve come from. But hoping our race pace will be better than theirs. I expect it to be a two- or three-stop race, so all to play for.”

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Do you think Lando Norris can capitalize on the penalty given to George Russell, or will the Mercedes driver outperform the McLaren driver once again on Sunday?