Verstappen 'got what he had coming to him'

Lando Norris likes Max Verstappen as a person, and the McLaren driver respects his title rival’s ability on track. So Norris was trying not to criticise the Dutchman too much after the Mexico City Grand Prix. But in the end he felt he had no choice.

“It was not fair, clean racing,” Norris said of Verstappen’s driving, which earned the three-time world champion two 10-second penalties for two separate incidents within four corners of each other early in the race. “And therefore I think he got what he had coming to him.

“I felt like I just had to avoid collisions, and that's not what you feel like you want to do in a race. He's in a very powerful position in the championship. He's a long way ahead. He has nothing to lose.

“It's not my job to control him. He knows how to drive. And I'm sure he knows that today was probably a bit over the limit."

Verstappen, for his part, was not interested in getting into a public debate.

“Twenty seconds is a lot,” he said. “But I am not going to cry about it and I am also not going to share my opinion. The biggest problem I had is that it was a bad day in terms of race pace.”

Verstappen still managed to finish sixth despite the penalties and an uncompetitive car. Norris took second, behind a dominant Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, which might not have been so dominant had Norris not been delayed behind Verstappen for much of the first stint.

That means Verstappen’s championship lead is down to 47 points with 120 still available over the remaining four races. Norris still needs to close in by nearly 12 points a race to become the world champion.

“It doesn't feel like I'm much closer than what I was,” Norris said. “But every point helps.”

The background and the incidents

It was the second race in succession in which Verstappen and Norris clashed, with a completely different outcome to a very similar - but not identical - move.

In the United States Grand Prix the previous weekend, Norris was penalised for overtaking off the track after trying to pass Verstappen around the outside and both ending up in the run-off area.

Norris, and the vast majority of his fellow drivers, felt that Verstappen’s driving had not been acceptable - he had come off the brakes to make sure he had reached the apex of the corner first, even though that meant he was going too fast to make the corner.

That triggered a specific part of the racing guidelines, which say that if the car on the outside is not ahead at the apex, it is not incumbent on the driver on the inside to give room on the exit.

But the drivers could see what Verstappen had done and that led to discussions with governing body the FIA in Mexico. The upshot was that the FIA agreed to revise the guidelines and bring the new text for approval to Qatar in two races’ time, taking into account the drivers’ views on this sort of “dive-bomb defence”.

So it looked after the clash between Verstappen and Norris on lap 10 in Mexico as if the stewards were actioning these conversations. And perhaps they were in a way. But the two incidents were different in that this time Norris had his car slightly ahead at the apex.

This meant that, when Verstappen again ran him off the track, according to the guidelines, Norris should have been afforded room. So when Verstappen failed to give him any, he was penalised.

Four corners later, it was even more obvious. Verstappen, now behind, lunged for the inside, they went off and another penalty was dispensed. Even Verstappen more or less admitted he was at fault there.

“It just felt that the Turn Four was a bit more a question mark,” Verstappen said. “Turn Seven is what it is.

‘I want tough battles, but fair’

Norris explained the two incidents after the race in Mexico.

“Austin, I don't think anyone should have got a penalty,” he said. “Yeah, let's say we both kind of did things wrong. I feel like I was made to do something wrong.

“The majority of people, the majority of drivers feel like that was the same thing. That's why you've heard of some of the rule changes that might be coming and those types of things. It's because there's a common consensus that it wasn't correct what happened in the result that I had last weekend.

“Today, I think, was another level on both of those cases. I was ahead of Max in the braking zone, past the apex. I am avoiding crashing today. This is the difference. I don't see it as a win or anything like this, but it's more that I hope Max acknowledges that he took it a step too far.”

Norris believes that Verstappen is saving his most extreme defence for him, because they are championship rivals. Just as Lewis Hamilton feels the same thing happened when he was battling with Verstappen in 2021.

“I go into every race expecting a tough battle with Max,” Norris said. “It's clear that it doesn't matter if he wins or second, his only job is to beat me in the race. And he'll sacrifice himself to do that, like he did today.

“But I want to have good battles with him. I want to have those tough battles, like I've seen him have plenty of times. But fair ones. It's always going to be on the line. It's always going to be tough with Max. He's never going to make anyone's life easy, especially mine at this point of the year.”

What did the bosses say?

Inevitably, the bosses of McLaren and Red Bull disagreed on the incident.

McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown said: “It's getting a bit ridiculous. I applaud the FIA stewards. Enough is enough. Let's just have some good clean racing moving forwards.

"The stewards are on it. That’s clear by the penalties that were given. The stewards did a good job this weekend.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, meanwhile, produced some data that he said proved Norris had braked later on the lap of the incident than he had on even his fastest lap of the race, and was never going to make the corner.

Then he accused Norris of deliberately doing this to ensure he had his nose ahead into the corner.

“It used to be a reward of the bravest to go around the outside,” Horner said. "We are in danger of flipping the overtaking laws upside down, where drivers will just try to get their nose ahead at the apex and then claim they have to be given room on the exit.

“You can see quite clearly he has effectively come off the brakes, gone in super late to try to win that argument the way these regs are written. And then at that point you are penalised.”

The irony - that Horner was accusing Norris of doing on the outside exactly what Verstappen had done in Austin on the inside, but saying it was wrong when saying what Verstappen did in Texas was fine - was obvious.

Norris and Verstappen have battled several times on track this season

Did the incident cost Norris victory?

Sainz, who had started from pole but lost the lead to Verstappen at the start, was already back past the Red Bull before the incident with Norris happened.

But the Turn Eight incident lost both Verstappen and Norris a place to the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, and Norris then spent the rest of the first stint stuck behind Verstappen, while the Ferraris of Sainz and Charles Leclerc built a lead.

And after Verstappen finally pitted out of Norris’ way on lap 26, the Briton lost further ground in the three laps before his own stop.

But once back out on track on the hard tyres, Norris was the fastest man, and began to slowly claw back his deficit.

He was on Leclerc’s tail with 12 laps to go, and pressured him into an error, allowing the McLaren to slip by into second place.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: “At the start of the race in the first stint, I thought this is probably not making a big difference because I thought the Ferraris are faster today.

“But as we were going through the first stint, as soon as Lando got clear of Verstappen, he showed he had very competitive pace, and in the second stint he proved he was as fast as Ferrari.

“So in hindsight now, when I look at the incidents, there is a little bit of disappointment because without that I think Lando could have fought for victory.”

What does it all mean?

Battle is rejoined in Brazil this weekend, the last of three back-to-back races. There is then a three-week gap before another three races on consecutive weekends end the season.

Ferrari’s one-three moved them ahead of Red Bull into second in the constructors’ championship, which now looks to be a straight fight between McLaren and Ferrari, with Red Bull out of contention.

Whoever wins it, it will be quite the story, as McLaren have not been champions since 1998 and Ferrari not since 2008.

Verstappen said that far more important than the penalties, the “biggest problem was we had no pace.” But his lead in the drivers’ championship is comfortable enough that Norris needs his rival to retire from a race to have a realistic chance of becoming champion, even if Red Bull continue to struggle.

Verstappen says: “I’m not worried (about the championship) but I also know we can do better than this. We need to improve our car. I am only thinking about how I can be faster.”

And Red Bull’s problems do not end there. Sergio Perez had what Horner described as “a horrible weekend again”, finishing last after a messy race. And Horner refused to commit to keeping the Mexican in his seat, even for the rest of the season.

“We have done everything we can to support him and will continue to do so in Brazil, but there comes a point in time when you can only do so much,” Horner said.

“The scrutiny will always be there, and there comes a point in time when difficult decisions have to be made.”

Will Verstappen change?

Verstappen did not say after the race whether he would amend his approach to wheel-to-wheel racing from now on.

“I just drive how I think I have to drive,” he said. “Last week it was all right, this week 20 seconds penalty.

But was a new line in the sand drawn in Mexico? Will the stewards no longer turn a blind eye to a tactic Verstappen has been using for many years without - until now - suffering?

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said: “A driver will always push to the limit and, when the rules or the interpretation of the rules allow a certain way of racing, a driver like Max is always going to exploit it.

“Now there has been a new interpretation and execution of those regulations, and I think it will change the way everyone races in future and you won’t see that anymore.

“The rules are pretty clear and the drivers know. But everybody is trying to push that and, if you get away with it, that is the new limit. Will it change? Absolutely. Now there is precedent.

“From now you have to leave space on the outside of a corner if a car is next to you, and braking late and dragging the other car out of the track, while also driving off track, is not allowed any more. It is good for racing.”