Revealed: Why Lando Norris didn’t give position back to Max Verstappen

Lando Norris has defended his and McLaren’s choice not to cede position back to Max Verstappen after overtaking him off-track at COTA.

Norris finished ahead of Verstappen on track in the United States but was given a five-second time penalty after overtaking the Dutch driver while off the track.

Lando Norris: There might not have been another chance

The moment came at the end of a very tense 10-lap stand-off between the two title protagonists as they disputed third place behind the leading Ferraris.

With a championship title on the line, Verstappen held his nerve against Norris lap after lap but was unable to prevent the McLaren from latching on and getting alongside in the DRS zone into Turn 12.

Braking later than Norris into the corner, Verstappen stuck to the inside line and pushed Norris wide – neither driver keeping within track limits as Verstappen ran into the escape area while Norris kept up his momentum on the outside to overtake him around the outside.

With Norris and McLaren attempting to scamper off up the road to negate a possible penalty, the British driver’s 4.1-second advantage wasn’t enough to stay ahead of Verstappen at the chequered flag as he was awarded a five-second penalty.

Given his pace advantage over Verstappen as he enjoyed a six-lap tyre delta over the Red Bull, might yielding the position back to Verstappen and attempting another overtaking move have made more sense, given his move had been completed while off-track?

“It’s too easy for people to say this,” Norris told media, including PlanetF1.com, on Thursday in Mexico.

“My tyres were getting hotter and hotter and getting away from me more and more.

“My pace difference to Max was decreasing.

“So, if I let him back past, there probably might not have been a chance to get past him again.

“Just hindsight and people’s opinions on the outside, it’s very simple, no, I don’t agree with a lot of people in what they say – that might have been my only chance.”

Asked whether he felt McLaren need to be quicker in terms of thinking on their feet to respond to incidents and situations which require operational sharpness, Norris said he had weighed up the situation – and agreed with his team when he asked for their advice.

“Who knows? I know best. I’m in that position so I’ll give my opinion,” he said.

“Sometimes it’ll be right, sometimes it’s wrong. I don’t mind if people disagree with my opinion, but I’m always just trying to do what I think is best at the time and within the rules that I believe is correct and those kind of things.

“Sometimes it’s difficult. Hence, I asked the team, what do you guys think?

“Ideally, the stewards would come on and say, ‘We don’t think this was right, give the position back’.

“That would have been a much more simple thing to do. But that’s not how it works.

“I believed I was in the right. I’ve asked the team for confirmation. They believed that we were in the right, and therefore I’ve continued.

“So no, I think we’re doing a good job as a team. I think our approach is correct.”

More on Lando Norris and Max Verstappen

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Andrea Stella: McLaren thought stewards investigation was for Max Verstappen

Speaking after the race in Austin, McLaren team boss Andrea Stella revealed that his team’s interpretation of the incident had differed significantly from that of the stewards.

While the stewards were investigating Norris for his off-track overtake, McLaren believed it was Verstappen facing investigation for running wide and pushing Norris off – a tactic that was later revealed to be acceptable under the Driving Guidelines published by the FIA.

With Race Control investigating Norris for his transgression, McLaren opted against instructing him to hand the place back – something which have negated his pending penalty before it was awarded, and given him another opportunity to pass the Red Bull.

“When I saw that there was an under investigation, I was pretty sure that was because Max pushed Lando off the track,” Stella said.

“And in fact, we told immediately Oscar [Piastri], ‘Make sure you close five seconds on Max because there could be a position at stake.’

“So the interpretation of this situation between McLaren and the stewards is polar opposite.

“Other people, and under my responsibility, were in complete agreement by all the people involved in this interpretation this situation did not need to be investigated. Once we saw, and if anything, we thought the investigation should be for Max pushing Lando off the track, and that’s what we thought was going to happen when we saw that the case was under investigation. So for us, there was no need to give back the position because of the situation.”

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