Lando Norris takes the blame for yellow flag violation that cost him a precious podium.

Running behind race leader Max Verstappen, Norris failed to slow for double waved yellow flags in the chaos that ensured after Alex Albon shed a mirror which fell from his car and lay on the main straight.

According to the stewards Norris did not make any reduction in speed in the yellow sector though the double waved yellow flags and yellow lights were clearly visible to him.

As a result he was given a 10 second stop and go penalty - which dropped him to last - and 3 penalty points, bringing his total to 3 for the 12 month period.

As if the penalty wasn't bad enough, adding insult to the McLaren driver's injury was the fact that it came some time after the incident, indeed after the Safety Car had been deployed as a result of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton picking up punctures from the errant mirror, and as a result, with the field now bunched up, after serving the penalty the Briton rejoined the race in last position.

"Disappointed, of course," said Norris at race end. "I let the team down, the team gave me a great car today. Easily the quickest out there and I f***** it up.

"I don't know what I did wrong," he admitted. "I'm not an idiot, if there's a yellow flag I know I need to slow down. That's rule number one, don't go past people. For some reason, I didn't do that today, because I've not seen it or I've missed it or something. I have to take it on the chin.

"If they think I've done something wrong, I must have done something wrong," he added. "I can only apologise for the rest of the year to the team."

Asked if he felt the penalty was justified, he said: "If I did what they said I did wrong, then good on them for giving me the quick penalty."

However, though admitting that the penalty was "deserved", team boss Andrea Stella took issue with its severity.

"I think the penalty was deserved," said the Italian. "Which leads us then to two important requirements. One is proportion and the second one is specificity. I think the application of the penalty lacks both requirements.

"Is there an immediate danger for somebody, is there a crash scene? Like the specificity of the incident in which the infringement was committed. The specificity leads into the proportion. The penalty needs to be commensurate, it needs to be proportioned to the severity of the infringement.

"It's interesting that the FIA themselves were going on and off with the yellow flag and at some stage the yellow flag was even removed," he added. "The lack of any specificity and proportion is very concerning and is also a factor that could have a decisive impact on the championship quest.

"It's definitely material that the FIA should consider very seriously if we want fairness to be part of the going racing in F1."

Indeed, at a time the sport's governing body is under fire and going through internal turmoil, it hardly covered itself in glory... far from it.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by kenji, 04/12/2024 13:58

"@Ed...Nothing would grieve me more that to see a grid made up of 20 Aussies. We have enough of them on the grid now. I would however like to ensure you and all other posters that I certainly do not loathe all things English. That is just plain wrong. What I do find irritating though is the 'English bias'. One of the reasons why i unashamedly support my countrymen [ when they deserve it ] is as a foil to all this John Bull jingoism. How many times did the Sky team bang on about all the Brits last weekend? I lost count. Just as a reminder I spent seven years living in England and apart from being domiciled there, even got married at Kensington Registry Office, I also spent three years sailing as an engineer in the British Merchant Navy. Over a 28 year long business career I also travelled in and out England at least three times per year so I feel reasonably educated on a lot of things British. I even attended the British GP at Silverstone in 1960!! All that aside, no doubt some of my comments tend to upset some of the posters. That's a shame as I tend to be upfront most times. Finally Max has seen the light re 'Sprints' despite the purists shunning anything that hasn't been on the menu before.Time to move on from the 'Windsor soup' followed by beef and two boiled veg and a sticky pudding to finish. Hahaha those were the days my friend.....but now they've come to an end. How about Oscar for another podium?"

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2. Posted by kenji, 04/12/2024 13:22

"Wow...where to start. Firstly @Hondaunearthed. If you care to check it out Sky TV raised the issue as one of 'impeding' As I explained, that was my interpretation. If Russell hadn't been travelling as fast there wouldn't have been any issue as the distance between Alonso and Verstappen was constant as they were all on slow laps. Anyway it matters little now as it's history and Abu Dhabi is of more interest."

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3. Posted by Editor, 04/12/2024 7:55

"@ Hondaunearthed

Other than being a devout contrarian... and I'm still not sure why Max Noble encouraged him in terms of the Sprint, the fact is that Kenji will only be happy when the grid consists of 20 Australians, though he might grudgingly accept one New Zealander, all preferably driving Brabhams in the original green and yellow livery.

He will welcome Doohan's arrival because at last he has a countryman whose surname doesn't end in a vowel (the Italian connection).

Like Mel Gibson - who actually born in New York - he has a deep loathing of all things English, particularly when teammates or rivals to one of his countrymen."

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4. Posted by Hondaunearthed, 04/12/2024 5:03

"@Kenji… like I said, the penalty was for not sticking to the delta time set, therefore breached rule 33.4 - driving too slowly. You originally stated, you didn’t know what the infringement was for, because he was impeding. I then clarified for you. Your reply then seems to turn passive aggressive, with your Alonso comment and exclamation marks. Secondly I have an opinion on Norris, as you do, as the rest of the planet does, which is ok. I’m entitled to that, as you are with all the comments you make on here. I browse comments regularly, and consistently see your opinion l, and if it does not align with yours, you use large words and other means to try assert dominance or superiority. Today you have tried to manipulate your original comment to make me wrong, please be aware every is entitled to an opinion, and everyone has the ability to google facts. Peace out Kenj"

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5. Posted by kenji, 04/12/2024 1:16

"@Hondaunearthed...AFAIK Verstappen was accused of driving slower than the set delta and as a result he impeded Russell when Russell arrived at the corner. You are aware that Alonso was directly in front of Verstappen for the entire lap and the distance between them remained constant! As for Norris...the rules, as per the rule book, are in black and white. As Bernie Collins said, the stewards have no room for personal interpretations, which is as it should be. By not following the 'two waved yellow flags' Norris has compromised McLaren's chances of winning the WCC. That move has cost the team 17 points in the challenge....."

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6. Posted by Hondaunearthed, 03/12/2024 11:43

"@Kenji Max’s penalty was nothing to do with impeding, it was not nearing the delta time, which the race director had warned the drivers of on Thursday/Friday at driver briefing.
As for Norris penalty, yes he has to get a penalty, however in the time deciding the penalty a safety car occurred, mostly due to the director’s inability to decide sooner. So I think the penalty should have been given some sort of leaneancy, due to the pack being bunched up. Weather that be just a drive through, without the 10 seconds, or just 10 seconds added at the end. I just think that was a little harsh due to the bunching up."

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7. Posted by kenji, 03/12/2024 2:06

"@BillH...how could Norris avoid taking ownership? As Bernie Collins said post race, the penalties are there and they should be applied. The stewards don't just make things up and they should be applied without fear or favour. It appears that that is what has occurred here. Well done stewards. That said I am at a loss to understand the penalty given to Verstappen. A one place penalty given for an supposed impeding charge on a slow lap! That's a mystery to me....but then again lots of things are!"

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8. Posted by BillH, 02/12/2024 18:00

"I do like it that Norris has taken ownership of his mistake.
He'll go far with that attitude and approach so long as learns and doesn't let it "get to him".
Perhaps the FIA will be looking into a grading approach for situations i.e., yellow vs. double yellow, debris vs. people on track.
However, the good thing about the rule now is that it can be consistent in terms of the penalty applied, it's there and just applied without debate.
Regardless of the penalty, it certainly should be applied faster than what happened in the last race and that is where AI could be used to monitor the cars in the sections that have flags out and then alert the race director to check and take action.
It is rather frustrating to see "will be investigated after the race..." so often.
"

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9. Posted by Steve 666, 02/12/2024 14:07

"Part of the problem is that the traditional meaning of flags is ignored these days, instead of "Slow down and prepare to stop" it has become acceptable, apparently, just to lift off and be milliseconds slower than on your previous lap, crazy.
Bring back Masi !!"

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10. Posted by Mad Matt, 02/12/2024 11:53

"Not sure we need AI for what should be fairly straight forward rules but I do agree that a "tariff" per offence would make things clearer.

A quick search shows Max getting a grid penalty in Qatar 2021 for ignoring double waved yellows when there was an actual accident and him doing more or less the same in 2018, again with a small grid penalty.

I'm not picking on Max here, it was just what shwoed up in a search, my point is more about consistency as Lando got a much more severe penalty.

Again, I'm happy with the severityt as long as it's consistent."

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11. Posted by Stitch431, 02/12/2024 8:34

"regarding the punishment: Kimi Raikkonen got the exact same penalty on Spa in 2017. But to solve the inconsistencies it would be a good idea to create a syllabus of sanctions for the offenses. Let AI check what the penalty is for each offense, and then the stewards can consequently give the same penalty for all drivers, regardless of standing, nationality or pressure. We do have the tools to make it a less biased sports ..."

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12. Posted by Mad Matt, 02/12/2024 8:20

"As Lando himself admits, a penalty was merited, it just seems that the "punishments" being handed out this weekend were being done in a more severe way than previously but without any kind of notice that I could see.

I actually am happy to see the stewards being stricter but it just seems strange to introduce the change towards the end of the season without any warning.

Let's see how consistent they are with this new approach going forward."

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"I f***** it up," admits Norris

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