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AUSTIN, Texas —On a weekend that started with controversy sparking between Formula One title rivals Red Bull and McLaren, it was perhaps fitting it ended similarly.
With the two teams’ technical battle from earlier in the week now a “non-story,” it was left to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to go wheel-to-wheel in their most spirited fight since the Austrian GP, which ended in a collision.
They avoided contact this time, but not drama. Norris earned a five-second time penalty after stewards deemed he overtook Verstappen off of the race track with four laps remaining. He lost third place in the final classification when the stewards handed down the sanction on the final lap.
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But the fact Verstappen had also gone off the track at Turn 12 during the battle left Norris confused — as to why he’d received the penalty, given he had no choice but to do the same.
“He went off the track by defending and has over-defended and made a mistake,” Norris said in the media pen after the race. “Therefore, (he) has gained from that.”
Norris admitted he didn’t understand the decision and questioned whether the stewards rushed to ensure its delivery before the checkered flag. McLaren team principal Andrea Stella lamented that the stewards had “interfered with a beautiful piece of motorsport” in an “inappropriate” way, given both cars had gone off-track and gained an advantage.
At a time when tensions are already running high between Red Bull and McLaren, the stewards’ room call served as the latest flashpoint in the fight for both F1 championships.
How the battle unfolded
Both would have wished their late fight would have been for much more than third place, considering their title aspirations and the front-row lock-out. But Ferrari’s superior race pace allowed Charles Leclerc to dominate, while Carlos Sainz easily undercut Verstappen in the pits to grab second and give the Italian team its first 1-2 finish since Australia in March.
Norris dropped from first to fourth at the start after Verstappen’s aggressive lunge up the inside allowed both Ferraris to sneak ahead. Norris was unhappy about the move on the radio but resolved to get his head down and reel Verstappen back in.
By running six laps longer in the opening stint, Norris built up a tire delta that meant he could hunt down Verstappen with fresher rubber, closing up on the Red Bull with 13 laps to go. After gaining Drag Reduction System, overtaking for P3 seemed to be a formality. If he finished fourth, Verstappen’s net loss for the weekend would only be a single point after his sprint victory. Surely a success in the context of the title battle.
That’s not how Verstappen approaches racing. On multiple occasions, he covered off the inside at the end of the straight to Turn 12 before perfectly placing his car through the cutbacks, not giving Norris a chance to get alongside the Red Bull properly. Even with fading tires and a balance issue, the Dutchman clung to the position.
Lap 52 was the closest Norris got to Verstappen on the hairpin’s exit, allowing him to move alongside with DRS before they reached the braking point. Verstappen managed to brake a little later but ran beyond the white line at the exit of Turn 12. Norris did the same, looping even further wide before shooting ahead in third place.
Verstappen immediately jumped on the radio to say Norris had overtaken him off-track and that he should give the position back, repeating the call twice more. His race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, assured him he’d get the place, and noted that Norris had also breached track limits and that Red Bull expected a penalty.
On the final lap, race control confirmed Norris had received a five-second time penalty. He crossed the line 4.1 seconds clear of Verstappen, meaning he dropped behind in the final classification — and, crucially, opened the championship lead back out to 57 points.
Why Norris received the penalty
F1’s racing rules are a constant source of debate among drivers, particularly at corners like Turn 12, where drivers regularly run wide when battling. Oscar Piastri received a time penalty for forcing a driver off the track in the sprint race, which confused some drivers. The stewards dinged Pierre Gasly for overtaking off-track during the grand prix.
Norris admitted post-race that stewarding those kinds of battles is a “tough job” but explained he had no choice but to go off because of how Verstappen defended on the inside.
“It’s impossible for people to know if I could have made it on the track or I couldn’t,” Norris said. “You can’t steward that kind of thing. But those are the rules. They seem to change because it seems like it’s quite inconsistent from what happened in Austria (in their late fight), where Max didn’t get a penalty and went off the track, gained an advantage. There’s again inconsistency, but it’s tough.”
Norris also rued that he could not explain his side of the debate, nor could McLaren appeal the in-race time penalty, the latter being “again a silly thing, because they’re just guessing. I don’t think that’s how stewarding should be done.”
The stewards eventually issued a bulletin explaining the time penalty, stating that Norris was “not level with (Verstappen) at the apex,” meaning the McLaren driver had lost the “right” to the corner.
“Accordingly, as (Norris) left the track and returned in front of (Verstappen), it is deemed to be a case of leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage,” it read. The stewards added that there was consideration of the fact Norris had “little alternative” but to go off the track due to Verstappen, but that it was only a mitigating factor to make it a five-second penalty instead of 10 seconds.
Norris took the ruling on the chin, saying there was “not a lot I can do apart from just accept that,” even if he didn’t understand it and wanted clarity from the stewards. The topic is certain to come up in the next F1 drivers’ briefing.
Verstappen felt it was more straightforward. “I think it’s quite clear,” he said. “You can’t overtake outside of the white line.” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner agreed and said it was McLaren’s choice not to tell Norris to give the position back.
Stella remained unimpressed post-race by what happened, suggesting journalists dig into the statistics about Verstappen’s defensive moves. “How many times Max has used this way for defending (where) both cars go off track?” he said. “I think both cars are gaining an advantage if there’s an advantage gained.
Verstappen brushed off a question about his off-track move and any grievances McLaren might have. “They’ve complained about a lot lately anyway,” he said.
“It’s very clear in the rules: Outside of the white line, you cannot pass. I’ve been done for it in the past.”
The championship impact
While they disagreed on the penalty, one thing Verstappen and Norris could agree on was the quality of their battle across the final 13 laps.
Norris has always reveled in his fights with Verstappen, which has become an even contest this year through McLaren’s surge in performance to match — and even outpace — Red Bull. He called today a “great battle,” praising the Red Bull driver for his defending and noted how important it was to commit to moves when battling Verstappen. “With Max, you can’t just go half-hearted,” he said, ultimately taking accountability for letting him pass at Turn 1.
“If I defended better in Turn 1 and wasn’t driving like a muppet … I should have led after Turn 1, and we shouldn’t have had this conversation in the first place,” he said.
The tough part for Norris is that the ruling and the six-point swing it caused in the standings — the difference would be 51 had he finished third — has dealt a blow to his championship hopes. The result ended his run of constantly gaining on Verstappen at the top of the standings since the summer break. The Austin weekend snapped the months-long momentum McLaren had built.
With a 57-point gap and only five rounds remaining, the numbers are working against him.
“It’s a momentum killer,” Norris said. He doubted it was possible to beat Ferrari in Austin but said, “The one guy I need to beat is Max, and that’s the guy I didn’t beat today. So, it was an unsuccessful weekend all in all.
“But we gave it a good shot. I tried. It wasn’t good enough, and we have work to do, and I have work to do on myself.”
Verstappen may not have been happy with the feel of his Red Bull for much of the race, but the upgrades have at least moved the team back in the right direction competitively. Most importantly, he’s come away with an extended championship lead.
“That is definitely the positive,” Verstappen said. “I did hope for a little bit more performance today, so that’s what we have to analyze today why today we were just not that good.”
(Top photo of Lando Norris: Mark Thompson / Getty Images)
