Lando Norris coming out on top in a wheel-to-wheel battle with title rival Max Verstappen at the Mexico Grand Prix was vindication of his “fair” driving, according to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella.
Norris finished second behind Carlos Sainz to take 10 points out of Verstappen’s lead and will head to Brazil next weekend trailing the three-time world champion by 47 points with four races remaining and 120 points still up for grabs.
A week on from Norris being demoted behind Verstappen at the United States Grand Prix for overtaking his rival off the track – a penalty McLaren contested – the championship protagonists locked horns again in Mexico City.
This time it was Verstappen who fell foul of the stewards on lap 10, accumulating 20 seconds of penalties – for forcing Norris off the track at turn five and leaving the track and gaining an advantage at turn eight.
Norris called Verstappen, who battled back to finish sixth, “dangerous” over the radio and said he did not believe his rival was driving in a fair manner.
Stella praised Norris for sticking to his principals in the heat of battle and said McLaren have always backed the way their driver goes about his business.
“Our conversation and internal reviews have always been very clear – Lando we like, we approve and confirm the way you go racing,” Stella said in Mexico City.
“It is not for you to go there and try to find justice yourself. You go racing in a fair, sporting way like you do and then there needs to be a third party – that is the stewarding that will say whether some manoeuvres are fair or not.
“Don’t be desperate, you don’t have to prove anything. You go racing fair and square. That is what we want from Lando, that is what Lando wants from himself and I think it is important though that the team confirms that is what we want from you.”
Ahead of this weekend’s race, Norris had said he might need to change his driving style to compete with Verstappen and even said he was “not on the level” of the championship leader.
“Lando can look at his own racing, often looking at a half-empty glass in relation to what he could do,” Stella added.
“I always needed to have a conversation with Lando to reassure him, ‘don’t worry, it will be alright’.
“In this sense this is a positive day because it has proven that – I think it is good to race hard but it can’t be resolved on track by the two drivers.
“It needs a third party, the authorities. We are completely happy with the way Lando has been racing before.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner disputed the initial penalty handed to Verstappen at turn five as Norris went around the outside.
Horner arrived for his media duties with printed out GPS charts, which he claimed showed Norris had gone into that corner later on the brakes and faster than he had done on his fastest lap of the race.
“It used to be a reward of the bravest to go round the outside,” Horner said.
“I think 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 that they have to be given room on the exit.
“They need to get back to basics – if you are on the outside you will not have priority.
“Otherwise we will end up with a mess over these next four races. I think it’s really important that the driver steward, together with the drivers, agree something that is sensible rather than what we are getting.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here