Max Verstappen is adamant that Lando Norris was in the wrong when he was docked five second for gaining an advantage by overtaking off track in the closing stages of the US GP.
The pair were battling for third place when Norris made his move, and having received the penalty the McLaren driver was only able to gain 4.1 seconds on the Dutchman, and thus dropped back to fourth in the final result.
There were contrasting views about what happened, with many people sharing McLaren’s view that Norris was forced wide by Verstappen. However the World Champion was adamant that he was the innocent party.
“I think it’s quite clear,” he said. You can’t overtake outside of the white line. I mean, I got done for it also here in, I think, 2017 or whatever it was. So I lost my podium like that.
“So I just remained calm, tried to do the best I could after that to bring the car to the end, because it was not easy with the tyres and the situation that I was in. But yeah, overall, I still really enjoyed that battle that we had.”
Asked if he had any sympathy for McLaren’s suggestion that Norris was forced wide he said: “No, I don’t. I mean, they complain about a lot lately anyway, but it’s very clear in the rules. Outside the white line, you cannot pass. I’ve been done for it as well in the past.”
Verstappen and Norris had another incident at the start, when poleman Norris was forced wide by the Dutchman, and both lost out to Leclerc.
“There was a gap on the inside, so I went for it,” he said. “That corner is very wide, so it gives you a lot of opportunity of going very wide or try to go really tight. I chose for that option, and I still came out second! Started second, came out second out of Turn 1.
“This time, of course, it was Charles in front. I think it worked out quite well for me because Charles was anyway faster, so he just pulled away. From there, I just tried to do my own race.”
Verstappen made it clear that it wasn’t a straightforward race for him as he dealt with various issues.
“I think today wasn’t the best race for us compared to yesterday, for example,” he said. “Just struggling for balance, for grip. Couldn’t really brake, rotate the car. So yeah, quite quickly onwards, I realised that we’re not going to win the race. But just tried to do my own race.
“I think we did the best strategy we could as a team. And then it was just surviving to the end. And then, of course, Lando arrived. We had some really good battles, honestly. It was really a lot of fun. But yeah, overall, it was still quite a tough race for me.”
Crucially Verstappen beat Norris in both the sprint and the main race, thus extending his championship lead.
“That is definitely the positive,” he said. “I did hope for a little bit more performance today, so that’s what we have to analyse, why today we were just not that good.
“I think everyone was a little bit better or at least the same as yesterday, and it felt like we were definitely worse. So I need to understand why that was, because I don’t know at the moment.”
Adam Cooper F1 