‘Cruel’ on Lewis Hamilton but ‘smart’ – Lando Norris goes against grain over Magnussen’s Miami tactics

Courting controversy with his defensive tactics in Miami, Lando Norris reckons what Kevin Magnussen did was “smart” even if it was “cruel” on Lewis Hamilton.

Running behind his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg in the Sprint race, Magnussen went into defensive mode as he kept Hamilton at bay, giving Hulkenberg the opportunity to pull away.

‘He did nothing to deserve to get black-flagged’

Lap after lap the Dane defended his position and stayed ahead of Hamilton, although he did that by leaving the track on three occasions.

Although he admitted to the stewards that he knew penalties were coming his way, “he thought that he was entitled to race with Car 44 in the manner that he did.”

His antics earned him three time penalties as well as three penalty points on his Super Licence, pushing Magnussen up to eight in total.

But they also helped earn Haas two World Championship points for Hulkenberg’s P7, the American team up to seven for the season to sit P7 in the Constructors’ Championship.

The other thing he earned was the ire of many in the paddock with Norris’ team boss Andrea Stella calling for a one-race ban as Magnussen was investigated, but cleared, of unsportsmanlike behaviour.

“For me, it’s actually relatively simple, this case, because we have a case of a behaviour being intentional in terms of damaging another competitor,” said the McLaren boss.

“This behaviour is perpetuated within the same race and repeated over the same season. How can penalties be cumulative? They should be exponential.

“It’s not five plus five plus five equals 15. Five plus five plus five equals… maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family, reflect on your sportsmanship and then go back.”

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Norris, though, has no issue with what Magnussen did, likening it to previous tactics used by Fernando Alonso in Monaco.

“It’s like Monaco, if your team-mate was ninth or whatever it was, and you overtake and you do a Fernando of a couple years ago where he just blocks everyone,” he told the media.

“You cut the corner to overtake someone and know you are going to get a penalty, but you saved your team-mate so he box.

“You can do it. You know you’re going to get a penalty, but you played the big team game. It depends on how far you want to push against that.

“I think it is cruel and it is tough to take when you are the other driver. But I think what he did was smart.

“He did nothing to deserve to get black-flagged, like everything he did to get the penalties that he got, which was just running off and not giving the position back.

“We’ve brought that up several times with the stewards.”

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