Norris penalized against Verstappen, McLaren judges the sanction “inappropriate”

A sanction that does not pass. McLaren judged “inappropriate” the penalty imposed by the stewards on its driver Lando Norris, second in the Formula 1 world championship, sanctioned for his maneuver against the general leader Max Verstappen on Sunday, during the United States Grand Prix.

Norris received a five-second penalty on the final lap of the race for leaving the track while overtaking Verstappen, gaining an advantage according to the stewards. A few moments earlier, the Briton had taken the advantage over his Dutch rival to gain third place. With this penalty, the McLaren driver finally dropped to 4th place behind his opponent Red Bull, 3rd.

“The way the stewards interfered with this beautiful motorsport was inappropriate because both cars went off the track, so both cars gained an advantage (…) for us there is no doubt that the maneuver was correct”reacted Sunday evening the manager of McLaren Andrea Stella, questioned by the channel Sky Sports. “It’s a shame because it cost us a podium, it cost us a race where we remained patient after being pushed on the first lap, at the first corner”he also railed, referring to a similar maneuver by Verstappen on Norris at the start of the race and for which the Dutchman was not sanctioned.

The decision made by the commissioners cannot be appealed, “the chapter is therefore closed”concluded Stella.

At the end of this 19th round (out of 24) of the season won by Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Verstappen slightly increased his overall lead over Norris, whom he now trails by 57 points while 146 points still remain. to be distributed until the last round of the season, in Abu Dhabi at the beginning of December.