Lando Norris says he was “swearing quite a bit” during his close encounter with Sergio Perez under the Virtual Safety Car at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The British driver closed in on an ailing Perez at the Spoon Curve, who limped back to the pits after colliding with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
Confusion descended at Spoon Curve as Norris backed off to avoid a collision with the Mexican, this allowed race leader Max Verstappen to to extend his advantage over the McLaren from 5.3s to 9.1s. His gap to Leclerc fell to 1.4s after it was 6.2s before the VSC.
Asked post-race what happened at that moment, Norris said in the press conference: “I don’t know what… he must have had a problem, right?
“But the thing is, you can’t overtake under the VSC unless it’s obvious the guy has a problem. I didn’t know if he had a problem or whether he was just backing me up. I didn’t know and I couldn’t take the risk of just overtaking him.
“He was going so slowly and then when we get the flashing dash for the VSC ending, he went into first gear and then I was on the outside of him because he was going so slowly, and then he almost crashed into me. So, I honestly have no idea.
“I was shouting in my helmet. I was swearing quite a bit, but I was so confused. I didn’t know what I could do. I’m losing time to Max.
“The Ferrari guys were, I think, 1.4 seconds behind me after being, I think, 12s or 13s, so I lost 10 seconds. And I didn’t know what I could do at the time.”
Here was the exchange on team radio between Norris and his race engineer Will Joseph.
Norris: “Does Perez have a problem? Because he’s going very, very slowly.”
Joseph: “Ah he’s had multiple problems and another stop.”
Norris: “Yes but I need to know if I can pass him.”
Joseph: “Checking.”
Norris: “I’m five seconds down, he’s just holding me up now.”
Joseph: “Yeah I know.”
Norris: “He must have a problem.”
Joseph: “Or he’s doing it on purpose?”
Norris: “Yeah but he can’t be going this slowly.”
Joseph: “Lando if the Virtual Safety Car is not ending we will box this lap. If it is not ending we will box this lap.”
Norris: “Yes. I need to know if I can pass him.”
Joseph: “I know I’m on it. You could… Okay, Virtual safety Car ending, Virtual Safety Car ending, you can overtake.”
Norris: “Bullshit, this.”
Joseph: “I agree mate, it is bullshit. Leclerc behind 1.4.”
Norris said that the Red Bull driver should’ve made it clearer that he had an issue on the track.
“If he has a problem, he should pull over and make it obvious that he has a problem,” added Norris. “He didn’t, and therefore, I couldn’t take the risk of passing under a VSC, so no idea.
“I don’t think it would have changed the world, it just made me stress for a little bit more. But it would have been maybe just a bit better to put Max under a little bit of pressure at least, after that. I don’t think we would have been quite as far behind.
Magnussen was far from impressed with Perez making contact with the Haas driver at the hairpin, which ended the Dane’s opportunity to score points.
“I just got hit on my rear tyre,” Magnussen explained. “It was a pretty desperate move, but it is what it is. I got spun around, and then we had to pit.
“So it made that situation a lot worse by having to pit at that point. It ended our race there – and his as well, of course.”
McLaren scored their first double podium of the season, with Norris and Oscar Piastri sharing the rostrum with race winner Verstappen.
Team Principal Andrea Stella said the incident between his driver Norris and Red Bull’s Perez was a small setback, but it didn’t transform the race results.
“It doesn’t affect the final result, but it’s a bit inconvenient, and it’s tricky,” he said. “It’s tricky because, as a driver, you can only judge based on the reference time, and Lando could see that he was losing quite a lot of time compared to the reference time.
“But it’s always a little discretional. Maybe the driver that is holding you could take an unsportsmanlike penalty, but you could also be summoned because you overtook.”
