AUSTIN — Max Verstappen brushed off McLaren’s complaints about Lando Norris’ penalty at the end of the U.S. Grand Prix.
Norris was handed a five-second penalty for running wide while overtaking Verstappen at Turn 12, meaning he dropped back behind the Red Bull driver in the final standings after the race.
Verstappen had also run off the track during the move while defending the inside line.
McLaren had called the penalty “inappropriate,” while Norris said the stewards lacked consistency.
When asked if he sympathised with McLaren’s position, he said: “No, I don’t. I mean, they complain about a lot lately anyway, but it’s very clear in the rules. Outside the white line, you cannot pass. I’ve been done for it as well in the past.”
Verstappen was referring to the headlines earlier in the week around McLaren’s allegations Red Bull was illegally altering the ride height of its car during a window of time the rules say teams cannot make changes to the car.
Referring back to the incident with Norris, Verstappen said he has fallen foul of the same part of the rulebook before, pointing to a famous clash with Kimi Raikkonen at the same circuit.
“I think it’s quite clear: you can’t overtake outside of the white line. I mean, I got done for it also here in, I think, 2017 or whatever it was. I lost my podium like that.
“I just remained calm, tried to do the best I could after that to bring the car to the end because it was not easy with the tyres and the situation that I was in. But overall, I still really enjoyed that battle that we had.”
Norris’ penalty meant Verstappen was able to extend his title lead to 57 points with five races and two sprints still to run.
“That is definitely the positive,” said Verstappen, who won the sprint race on Saturday. “I did hope for a little bit more performance today, that’s why we have to analyse why we weren’t that good. I think everyone is a little bit better or the same as yesterday, but we were definitely worse. I need to understand why.”
Source: www.espn.com