McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes that the stewards reaction to the incident that saw Lando Norris hit with a 5s penalty was inappropriate.

Norris and Verstappen were battling for third, when, on Lap 45, the Briton made a move on his Dutch rival in Turn 1.

As he sought to hold off the McLaren, Verstappen went wide and in the process Norris also went off and as they rejoined the track the Briton passed the Red Bull.

Verstappen immediately complained to his team that the move was illegal, while Norris insisted that he was ahead of the Dutchman at the apex of the corner and that therefore the move was fine.

The stewards disagreed.

"Norris was overtaking Verstappen on the outside, but was not level with the Red Bull at the apex," they deemed. "Therefore under the Driving Standards Guidelines, Norris 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," they claimed.

A 5 second penalty was imposed instead of the 10 second penalty recommended in the guidelines because having committed to the overtaking move on the outside Norris had little alternative other than to leave the track because of the proximity of the Red Bull which had also left the track.

As the stewards were making their decision, Verstappen was informed that Norris was almost certainly facing a penalty for track limits violations, however the stewards subsequently deemed that the off during which the controversial incident occurred did not count as a track limit "strike".

"My view is that the way the stewards interfered in this beautiful piece of motorsport was inappropriate, because both cars went off-track," argued Stella at race end. "Both cars gained an advantage," he told Sky Sports.

"It's a shame," he continued, "because it costs us a podium. It costs us a race where we stay patient.

"After we were pushed off in the first lap, first corner, we accepted it," he added. "Having said that, very clearly our position, this kind of decision by the stewards cannot be appealed. For us, the chapter is now closed and we move on to the next race."

Such was the Woking team's confidence that Norris' move was legal - and that the stewards would agree - that the team didn't suggest to Norris that he hand the place back, a move the British driver subsequently criticised.

"For us, there was no doubt that the manoeuvre was correct," said Stella.

Other than being unhappy with the time it took the stewards to make their call, Norris felt the stewards were wrong not to punish Verstappen for his move in the opening corner of the race.

"It's impossible to know," he said in reference to whether the team should have urged to him to hand the position back, "the stewards obviously can't make their minds up for a few laps, so it's not an easy decision, or it would have come a bit sooner.

"I tried," he continued. "He also went off the track, a few metres off the track, so clearly went in too hard, and also getting an advantage by doing what he did. But I don't make the rules.

"I need to go look at the start again. It was pretty tight, obviously Max went for a tight gap. From inside the car it's obviously harder to say on some things and also easier to say on some things.

"He obviously committed quite a bit, which he's got the right to do, but again, he went completely off the track, so I need to look back at it.

"He defends by going off-track," the Briton insisted, "he overtakes by going off-track. I'm not going to complain. Max drove well and he defended well, we had a good race together. But the rules are the rules."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by rambler, 3 hours ago

"Again the teams and drivers need to push for trained qualified stewards, not has been, nobodies, dragged out of hospitality. "

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2. Posted by kenji, 3 hours ago

"@Mad Matt, having viewed many times it seems to be rather ambiguous however the fact is that had Norris given the place back all would have been reset with one and a half/two laps left IMO. Verstappen drove a stonking race as did Norris. Plaudits have to be given to Ferrari...what excellent pace that car had and I was really
pleased to see Charles take the win. I was grossly disappointed with the Sky broadcast. There were some serious battles taking place but almost entirely ignored by the Director. Yes, the fight for the WCC/WDC is heavy duty but there are lots of followers of other teams/drivers that were ignored. Not really good enough."

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3. Posted by Mad Matt, 4 hours ago

"I have to say the steward's decisions today seemed somewhat random and in this case it's hard to understand why Max was allowed to push Lando off twice with no repercussions.

In the second case it looked like Max wasn't really ahead (but I didn't look at any replays) but even if he was it was only because he was going too fast to make the corner without leaving the track.

As I say looking at others who were and weren't punished it all seemed a bit random today which is a shame as it's a circuit I like and there was plenty of action today."

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Stewards decision "inappropriate", claims Stella

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