Did Lando Norris alert the stewards to Max Verstappen ‘overtaking everyone’?

It seems it may have been Lando Norris who alerted the stewards via a radio message to McLaren about Max Verstappen’s VSC infringement after the chequered flag in Baku..

Verstappen’s fifth-placed finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix is under threat after the Dutchman was cited for an alleged Virtual Safety Car infringement.

Lando Norris: Max is overtaking everyone

Sunday’s race ended behind the VSC which was out after Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez crashed on Lap 50 while fighting over third place behind Charles Leclerc.

Hard into the Turn 3 barrier, both cars skidded along the barrier before coming to a halt having suffered significant damage.

That meant the race ended under the VSC with Oscar Piastri cruising to his second Grand Prix win ahead of Leclerc while George Russell inherited the final position on the podium with title rivals Norris and Verstappen fourth and fifth.

But having taken the chequered flag, the Dutchman caught up to Norris who he waved to before pulling alongside Russell to give him a thumbs up.

Norris reported him to his race engineer Will Joseph.

“Max is overtaking everyone,” he said over the radio. “It’s still a VSC, right? I don’t know if it still matters or not, but it’s still a VSC.”

Shortly after Verstappen was cited for a potential breach of Alleged breach of Article 12.2.1 h) of the International Sporting Code and/or Article 56.6 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations which is overtaking under Virtual Safety Car Conditions after the chequered flag.

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However, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says he would be surprised if his driver was penalised for the incident.

“I looked at it,” he told the media in Baku. “He was congratulating the two drivers ahead of him, waving at them as they were coming into the pit lane, going incredibly slowly.

“We’ve seen it before with Charles Leclerc in Melbourne.

“I’d be amazed if there was any issue. It wasn’t like he was driving flat-out, or anything like that, into the pit lane.”

Verstappen was not penalised, only handed a warning by the stewards.

Verstappen finished the Grand Prix in fifth place after a difficult race for the Dutchman in which he complained about a lack of grip on both the medium and hard Pirellis.

While he was running a distant seventh for much of the race, his team-mate Sergio Perez was not only in the hunt for a podium but even potentially the win before his crash.

Horner says Red Bull will investigate Verstappen’s issues.

“I think there’ll be a big post mortem to see what the variances between the two cars are, which are obviously reasonably subtle,” he said, “but he was not as comfortable as Checo was today. So obviously we need to get into that to understand.”

Read next: Azerbaijan GP: Oscar Piastri wins three-driver thriller with Perez and Sainz in last-gasp crash