Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both failed to take the start of the Chinese Grand Prix after their cars were struck with issues in the build-up to the race.

Norris failed to exit the pit lane in time and progress onto the starting grid as the McLaren mechanics worked on his car.

Meanwhile, Piastri’s car was later wheeled off the grid and into the garage due to different issues on his MCL40.

It marks the second successive weekend that McLaren has faced a pre-race setback, as last time out in Australia, home favourite Oscar Piastri crashed out on the way to the grid.

Norris was due to start the race from sixth on the grid, behind team-mate Piastri in fifth. It is the first time since the 2005 United States GP that both McLaren drivers have failed to start a race.

McLaren were not alone in having pre-race issues, as problems for Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Williams’ Alex Albon saw the pair also not start. 

Like McLaren, Bortoleto’s failure to start marked a second consecutive grand prix to feature just one Audi.

Williams, meanwhile, confirmed that it identified a hydraulics issue on Albon’s car during his laps to the grid, and despite the team’s best efforts to fix the issue, it was forced to retire the FW48.Â