Lando Norris encountered a steely Max Verstappen in the pitlane at Suzuka, in an incident that resulted in the McLaren taking to the grass.
Norris found himself almost alongside Verstappen as the leading duo peeled out of the pits, only for the British driver to end up in the grass.
Lando Norris offers ‘It’s racing’ verdict
Norris had kept Verstappen within touching distance through the first stint of the Japanese Grand Prix, with both exploiting their medium tyres to be just over a second apart when they dived into the pits for their one and only stops at the same time.
Swapping to the hard tyres, McLaren turned Norris around slightly quicker than Red Bull did for Max, but it was the Dutch driver who was still slightly ahead as the pair reached the end of the pitlane.
Norris appeared to release his pit exit speed limiter slightly quicker than Verstappen but with the pitlane exit narrowing and arcing to the left, Norris ran out of room and had to take to the grass to avoid hitting the Red Bull.
The incident could have ended Norris’ race, due to a concrete wall alongside the exit, but Norris resumed the track without incident. Radioing in to complain that Verstappen had pushed him off, the Red Bull driver also radioed into his team to suggest Norris had released the pitlane speed limiter too early and hinted at an unsafe release.
The stewards saw no need to take any further action on the moment, and Verstappen went on to win ahead of Norris by a second.
Asked about the incident in the immediate aftermath of the chequered flag, Norris was more circumspect.
“It’s racing, I think. I mean, he was still ahead,” he said.
“It kind of squeezes into one. Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space, in a good way and in a racing way, so nothing more than that.”
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With the duo laughing about the moment in the cooldown room, as Verstappen dubbed the McLaren an “expensive lawnmower”, the McLaren man appeared keen not to make the incident bigger than it was as he congratulated Verstappen on the win.
“Yeah, I guess I just lost out yesterday,” he said.
“Max drove a good race today, no mistakes, and the pace was too similar to today to do anything more.
“So a long race, a lot of pushing. It was a flat-out race from start to finish. So tough, but yeah, just not enough today.
“Nothing special that we had that we could get Max on. They were quick and had no mistakes, like I said. So he deserved it.”
With McLaren finishing second and third, Norris said it’s clear that Red Bull has made clear progress with their RB21 after a steady start to the season, saying that McLaren didn’t have the match of Verstappen.
“I think it’s been a very good weekend,” he said.
“Obviously, we didn’t get the positions that we wanted. We were fighting for a win every weekend, but they deserved it, both Red Bull and Max deserved it this weekend, and they’re quick.
“They’ve been catching up. They’ve obviously made some improvements. As a team, we didn’t have enough this weekend, so we have to work harder for the next one.”
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