“Momentum killer” penalty for title hopes – Norris

Lando Norris said the decision to penalize him for an overtaking maneuver against title rival Max Verstappen at the United States Grand Prix was a “momentum killer” for his championship hopes.

The penalty, which the McLaren driver described as “ill-advised”, saw Norris drop from third to fourth place, one position behind Verstappen, who has now extended his lead in the championship to 57 points with five races to go and 146 points still available .

Norris also said he “drove like a Muppet” in the first corner and allowed Verstappen to get to the inside and push him to the outside, losing both places to eventual race winner Charles Leclerc of Ferrari.

Both incidents were controversial, but Norris and his McLaren team were more concerned about the race’s defining moment in Austin with four laps to go.

Norris had spent most of the race behind Verstappen, but an offset strategy gave him a tire advantage in the second stint and he closed on the Red Bull’s rear driver with 12 laps to go.

The two rivals spent the next eight laps battling it out, sometimes running side by side, until Norris tried to take advantage of the best opportunity presented to him.

He aimed for the outside line at Turn 12 while Verstappen defended the inside line. Both cars went off the track at the exit and Norris emerged at the front.

Verstappen immediately complained that Norris had overtaken him off the track, which was not allowed. Norris and McLaren saw the incident the other way around.

Norris said: “For me what Max did was wrong, which was to defend his position by going off the track and effectively holding his position. He over-defended, made a mistake and capitalized on it.”

“I had to get off the track. It’s impossible for people to know whether I could have made it on the track or not, so you can’t manage something like that.”

Norris and McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said the stewards should have discussed the incident with both drivers after the race.

“To me it’s just a hasty decision,” Norris said. “They don’t hear or understand our points about what they should do after the race. They just want to make a decision at that point so they don’t change points and podiums and things like that.”

“But they don’t hear my point of view or my team’s point of view or Max’s point of view, which I don’t think is the right thing to do. But today it’s a penalty and there’s not much I can do other than accept it.”

“It was a great fight. Max defended very well, but in the end he came out on top and I congratulate him.”

Norris said the stewards were “just making assumptions and I don’t think that’s how stewarding should be done.”

Stella drew comparisons to other incidents where Verstappen has driven in the same manner throughout his career.

“The defending car goes straight at the apex,” Stella said. “We watched the video several times; it just goes straight. Just like Lando, it comes off the track and simply doesn’t give Lando a chance to master the maneuver.”

“If I were a journalist, I would have made some statistics about how often Max used this type of defense. Both cars come off the track. So I think both cars gain an advantage when there is an advantage. So I.” I think it was at least neutral.

Verstappen dismissed Stella’s comments, saying: “They’ve been complaining a lot lately anyway, but that’s very clear in the rules. You are not allowed to pass outside the white line. I’ve died for this in the past too.”

The stewards’ report said that Norris was not level with Verstappen at the apex of the corner, so Norris “lost the right to corner.”

It added: “As (Norris) left the track and returned before (Verstappen), he is deemed to have left the track and gained a lasting advantage.”

They added that the standard penalty was 10 seconds, but this was reduced due to Verstappen’s driving style: “Having committed to the outside overtaking manoeuvres, (Norris) had no choice but to do so due to (Verstappen’s) proximity to leave the route.” who had also left the route.”

Had Norris finished ahead of Verstappen, he would have reduced his championship deficit to 51 points and regained three points after losing two to Verstappen in Saturday’s sprint event, which the Dutchman won while Norris finished third.

Norris said: “It’s a momentum killer, but we came here with an open mind and didn’t expect to dominate, win or anything like that.”

“The fact that Ferrari were so fast showed that they are just as competitive. I could only have come third. But the only one I had to beat is Max, and I didn’t beat him. It was an unsuccessful weekend. But we gave it. It’s a good attempt and we still have a lot to do and I still have a lot to do.

“I respect the fight we fought. Good, entertaining, respectful. I didn’t do the right thing in turn one, but I feel like what happened at the end was more on my side, but other than that it was a good fight.”

“We didn’t prevail because I didn’t work well enough. If I had defended better going into turn one and not driven like a Muppet, I should have led going into turn one and then we shouldn’t have had that conversation at all.”

Ferrari is aiming for the constructors’ title

Leclerc dominated the race after taking the lead at the first corner and said afterwards that he and Ferrari now had their sights set on the constructors’ championship after a strong series of races.

He also won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, finished second to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Azerbaijan and was competitive in Singapore, the race before Austin, where a mistake in qualifying saw him fight his way to fifth after starting tenth was.

In the constructors’ championship, in which both cars score points, Ferrari is 48 points behind leader McLaren and just eight points behind Red Bull in second place.

Leclerc, who is 79 points behind Verstappen in the drivers’ championship, said: “We have to aim to win the constructors’ title. That’s an optimistic goal, but that’s what we’re here for.”

“If we do everything perfectly by the end of the season, no matter what McLaren does, if we do it better than them, then I think we can still win this title.”

“I see things a little differently with the drivers. Even if we do everything perfectly, I think it will take a bit of luck to win the title and we can’t really rely on luck.”

“So the driver seems pretty unlikely, but again, I’ll believe it until it’s mathematically impossible. But more difficult.”

Stella said he wasn’t surprised that Ferrari was quick in Austin and that the route didn’t suit McLaren.

He added that there are some improvements to be made at McLaren: “In the next two races we will see if we are able to change the competitiveness of the car.”

Problems for Mercedes

Mercedes was not in the fight at the front and had a difficult weekend. Lewis Hamilton crashed at Turn 19 on the second lap of the Grand Prix, as did his teammate George Russell in qualifying on Saturday.

Hamilton said the two incidents were similar and raised questions about upgrades the team made to the car for Austin.

“I wasn’t even pushing at that point,” said Hamilton, who started 17th but moved up to 12th on the first lap. “I was just trying to get started.

“The front wheel started bouncing and the back wheel was spinning just like George did yesterday. P1, I had the same thing, a spin in turn three, which is so rare that in all the years I’ve been here I’ve never spun in turn three.”

“If it hadn’t happened in this round, it would have happened in another round because there was something wrong, and with this new package we had, it was the same for most of the weekend.”

Hamilton said the team needs to think about whether to use the new parts in Brazil next weekend, although Russell can’t because there aren’t enough of them.

Russell recovered to sixth place in the race after starting from the pitlane with a car converted to a previous specification.

Team boss Toto Wolff said there was “no fundamental problem with the upgrade” but added that the team did not understand why its weekend went wrong after being competitive in sprint qualifying on Friday when Russell and Hamilton were in the front row would have been on pole if he hadn’t encountered yellow flags on his lap.

Wolff also expressed concern about the controversial ride height change rift that emerged at Red Bull this weekend, saying it was “outrageous.”

He added: “It’s not enough to say, ‘That’s it, promise we won’t do it again’.”

FIA single-seater director Nikolas Tombazis said on Saturday that the matter was closed after the device was sealed as the FIA ​​could not retrospectively determine whether it had ever been used.