‘Clever’ Verstappen tactic uncovered in Norris battle amid ‘silly’ McLaren decision

Max Verstappen “knew what he was doing” with his braking into Turn 12 against Lando Norris at COTA, but McLaren were “silly” not to give him the place back.

That is the opinion of ex-W Series racer turned Channel 4 F1 pundit Alice Powell, who felt McLaren’s approach was flawed in Austin as their driver Lando Norris attempted to pass title rival Max Verstappen in the Red Bull for the final spot on the podium.

Max Verstappen ‘clever’ in Lando Norris COTA battle

Norris launched a move around the outside of Verstappen going into the sharp left-hander of Turn 12, but as Verstappen ushered both of them off the track, Norris got back on the gas and returned to the track ahead. Verstappen wanted P3 back, McLaren thought Norris was ahead at the apex, and the Brit duly looked to disappear up the road.

The stewards ruled in Verstappen’s favour, issuing Norris with a five-second penalty which saw the final podium place return to Verstappen at the line, who Powell believes got smart with his use of the F1 regulations.

“Max was clever. He knew what he was doing,” she said.

“So heading down into Turn 12, he is ahead at the apex and technically, that is his corner. He rolls off the brake, cleverly, because he knows if Lando goes off track, goes past him, overtakes him, keeps the position, that’s gaining an advantage.

“However, I am on Lando’s side in terms of Max also went off the track. So I see why the penalty was given to Lando, but I’m also a bit, well, hang on, Max wasn’t going to make the corner anyway. He also ran off track.

“It’s difficult, because if you put gravel there, we probably won’t be having this conversation, because they both would have gone through the gravel or not tried it at all.

“But I think the fact is that McLaren didn’t swap the position back around. It’s really hard when you’re Lando, because everything happens so quickly. He’s going through that corner so fast, there’s a slope, it all just happened so quickly and adrenaline is going really high.”

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To that point, Powell believes McLaren got it wrong by not stepping in and telling Norris to give Verstappen the place back.

“They could have cleverly switched them back round,” said Powell, “and where Lando would have had DRS and then was able to attack again.

“And the fact that there’d already been three penalties in the race for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, the stewards were always going to give Lando a penalty for that, because we’ve seen similar incidents. George’s, that was harsh, I think.

“So it was just set for the race, wasn’t it, so I think McLaren, it was a little bit silly of them for taking the risk, because he was always really going to get a penalty with the mood the stewards were in today.”

Verstappen has extended his Championship lead over Norris to 57 points with five rounds of the season remaining.

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