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Lando Norris complains: Nobody agrees with this rule!

Jason Maverick

Lando Norris is annoyed about the tire rule that gave Max Verstappen a free pit stop, and says that George Russell therefore deserves to win the most.

Lando Norris is annoyed after the Formula 1 race in Brazil about the tire rule that allows drivers to change tires under red flags. This rule cost him the chance of winning on Sunday and, more importantly, massively helped World Cup rival Max Verstappen, who benefited from it and won the race – and now has one hand on the World Cup trophy.

Norris had been battling with George Russell for the lead in Sao Paulo when both came to the pits for fresh intermediates at the end of a virtual safety car period. Max Verstappen had stayed out at the time, along with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly’s two Alpines.

A little later, the safety car was sent out due to the rainy conditions and the race was finally interrupted due to an accident by Williams driver Franco Colapinto.

The regulations state that drivers are allowed to change their tires under red flags. Verstappen was therefore able to change to fresh intermediates without having to come into the pits, which suddenly put him ahead of Norris in the race despite starting from 17th place on the grid.

“We simply lost our positions under the red flag because the others had free pit stops. That was bad luck,” Norris told Sky.

His team had told Norris just before that he should not come into the pits, but the Briton requested new tires over the radio and eventually came in for service. “It was the right thing to do,” he says of his tactics, “but we were just unlucky. I don’t care about hindsight. They got lucky, nothing else.”

Changing tires was the decisive mistake

In retrospect, the pit stop was the decisive mistake, but Sky expert Timo Glock would not blame McLaren for it. According to him, the conditions indicated that they had to come to change the tires. “At that moment, no one expected the race to be interrupted because it was raining so heavily,” he says.

Russell, on the other hand, had been annoyed because he actually wanted to stay out, but the team pushed for the tire change. “I told you we should have stayed out,” he ranted over the radio. “These are simple decisions you make in the moment. And in retrospect, you know it was right or it was wrong,” says Glock.

Verstappen himself had called for an interruption on the radio after Norris and Russell had driven to the pits – knowing full well that he would be allowed to change tires without disadvantage if the race was interrupted. “This has to be a red flag,” he complained on the radio. “There’s going to be a nasty accident. This is too dangerous!”

However, the Dutchman still did not want to drive in and change to rain tires and instead continued to advertise an interruption: “How many times do I have to say it? Red flag, let’s go now!” said Verstappen, who finally got the relieving message: “Finally, Jesus,” he said on the radio.

Norris: “Thinking like that is just stupid!”

Norris does not think much of the idea of simply staying out and hoping for a red flag to have a free pit stop: “Today it helped them. It could have helped us to stay out, but to think like that is just stupid,” he says.

The rule set out in Article 57.4 vii) of the sporting regulations is one “that nobody agrees with”, as he emphasizes. “Today they (Red Bull; editor’s note) probably agree with it, but every driver disagrees with it.”

George Russell, who like Norris also fell back as a result, would therefore have been a more logical winner for the Briton: “George certainly thought he had won the race today. He would certainly have deserved it more than anyone else to win today,” said Norris. “But sometimes you just have bad luck and the rules are against you.”

Norris makes a few mistakes after restart

But while Verstappen only had to deal with the two Alpines after the restart, who both ended up on the podium, Norris’ race went downhill after the restart. He had previously passed Russell and seemed to be taking the lead again at some point, but he was far from that after the interruption.

In turn 4, the McLaren driver came out too far and had to let Russell pass again; during another safety car restart later, he had to sledge through the run-off zone in the first chicane and let Charles Leclerc and team-mate Oscar Piastri pass.

“I made a few mistakes that cost me a little bit against George and against Charles today,” he admits, speaking of a difficult day. ‘I did my best. I’ve had a lot of good races, so it was about time that something didn’t go well.’

Norris admits: Verstappen would have overtaken us anyway

But the result with Norris in sixth place basically seals the championship. With three weekends to go, Verstappen now has a 62-point lead and his fourth title is as good as certain.

How difficult is that to take? “Pretty easy,” Norris shrugs. “I gave it my all today. Max won the race, good for him, well done, but it doesn’t change anything for me.”

At the same time, he admits that Verstappen would probably have overtaken him even without the red flag. ‘Third place would have been realistic for me,’ he says. ‘We just weren’t fast enough. Max was easily faster than us, and if he’d started from the front, he would probably have lapped us all.’

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