diff --git a/cpu/cc2538/Makefile.cc2538 b/cpu/cc2538/Makefile.cc2538
index 103e177fc..537036034 100644
--- a/cpu/cc2538/Makefile.cc2538
+++ b/cpu/cc2538/Makefile.cc2538
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ OBJCOPY_FLAGS += -O binary --gap-fill 0xff
 ### Are we building with code size optimisations?
 ifeq ($(SMALL),1)
   CFLAGS += -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections
-  LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections
+  LDFLAGS += -Wl,--gc-sections,--sort-section=alignment
 endif
 
 ### If the user-specified a Node ID, pass a define