Lando Norris was trying to put on a good show at the end of the race in Austin.
The McLaren F1 driver believes he lost a podium that belonged to him against Max Verstappen, while the Briton was already not happy with the Dutchman’s maneuver at the start, which caused him to fall from pole to 4th place.
“I feel good. Of course, it’s not my best race yet. With the defeat in the first corner and just the race at the end, yes, it was clearly not enough, that’s life, I didn’t do a good enough job but I took a chance so I do my best, my best isn’t enough sometimes It just wasn’t our day.”
Regarding this discussion that he wishes to have with the commissioners on Verstappen’s behavior, he adds: “Maybe we’ll have a discussion. I feel like there are a lot of scenarios where people wouldn’t have been penalized in the event that this happened.”
Should he have returned his place more quickly to try to overtake again?
“It’s hard to know. It might have been my only opportunity. Max defended well and he wasn’t easy to overtake so it’s impossible to know.”
“The stewards obviously can’t decide on a few laps, so it’s obviously not an easy decision, otherwise it would have been made a little bit earlier.”
“I tried. He also went off the track. So if he goes off the track, clearly he went too hard and also gained an advantage by doing what he did. But I don’t make the rules, so…”
Andrea Stella, her boss, was more irritated!
“I think the way the stewards interfered in a beautiful motorsport moment was inappropriate, as both cars went off the track, giving both cars the advantage.”
“It’s a shame because it cost us a podium and a race where we showed patience after being pushed off the track on the first lap and the first corner. We accepted it.”
“That said, our position is very clear: this type of decision cannot be appealed. This chapter is now closed and we move on to the next race.”
