Lando Norris poses ‘attacking car’ argument after Max Verstappen US GP incident

Lando Norris believes the logic behind the stewards’ decision-making at COTA was flawed, as a critical factor changed when he overtook Max Verstappen.

The logic behind Verstappen escaping penalty for the incident in which both he and Norris ran off track was not correct, the McLaren driver believes.

Lando Norris: I was completely ahead of Max Verstappen

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

The contentious moment of the Grand Prix came as an under-pressure Verstappen was attacked by Norris down the back straight, with the McLaren moving past before the braking zone at Turn 12.

Leaving his braking later than Norris, Verstappen moved up the inside of the McLaren and simply crowded Norris to the point where both drivers took to the escape area as Verstappen ran wide.

With Norris keeping up his momentum on the outside to pass Verstappen through the escape area, his failure to hand back the place resulted in a five-second time penalty which demoted him to fourth, behind Verstappen, at the chequered flag.

The FIA’s Driving Guidelines suggested Verstappen conformed with all racing rules, with a key factor of that equation being that Verstappen was regarded as the defending car in the incident – with the Guidelines allowing for his crowding tactic.

This was relevant as both George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda were punished for very similar moments at the same corner, with the difference being that they were the attacking car – meaning they were required to leave space for the other car, which wasn’t adhered to.

As pointed out by PlanetF1.com’s Pablo Hidalgo this week, overtaking is not strictly defined – meaning the definition of when an overtake is actually completed is not clear, muddying the waters on whether Verstappen’s move can be regarded as attacking or defending.

With such prescriptive wording in the Driving Guidelines playing such a major role in how the stewards weighed up the incident, Norris believes that the opposite circumstances should have applied as he had already overtaken Verstappen.

“I think what we saw with George’s and Bottas’ version, in some ways, was very similar to ours,” Norris told media, including PlanetF1.com, ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

“I was completely ahead of Max. I was over a car length ahead of him, so I was no longer the attacking car. He was.

“I was ahead of Max, so I wasn’t having to defend. He was the one attacking me and he’s gone in too hard and overtaken off the track. I’ve just maintained my position.

“He only stayed ahead of me at the apex because he went off the track. He wouldn’t have been ahead at the apex if he braked where he should have braked and stayed on the track.”

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Norris admitted the stewards had been placed in a difficult position, but simply said “no” when asked if he understood the thinking behind their decision-making.

“It’s very difficult, I think, to steward such things, because every single case is different, none are the same,” he said.

“I just think you need to know the intent of drivers. You need to understand their thought process, and you can only really do that with people who have been drivers and understand racing because they’ve been in those positions.

“Maybe some people who haven’t driven cars and haven’t raced, maybe they still understand those things, but it is a complicated thing.

“So I think the decision of the stewards kind of came out with, I would say I sort of agree with the general thought process of how they have to apply rules. It’s their job.

“If it says this by the book, then that’s the rule that has to be applied. But I think what happened last weekend didn’t fall into this.”

Norris said he expects it to be a hot topic in Friday’s driver meeting, revealing that quite a few other competitors agreed with his position.

“It’s something I’m sure we’ll discuss [in the driver’s meeting] because it’s been a big talking point,” he said.

“It’s been the main talking point since last weekend, not just for us, but for everyone.

“A lot of other drivers didn’t agree with it, other teams didn’t agree with it, but, at the same time, we’re in Mexico, and I have to focus on this weekend.”

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