05/11/2024
NEWS STORY
While most praise Max Verstappen for his bravura performance at Interlagos, title rival Lando Norris believes the Dutchman was lucky.
Yet again, though starting from pole, the McLaren driver lost out and by the end of the first lap was running second to George Russell.
The Briton never regained the lead, yet worse was to come for after he and Russell both pitted on Lap 28, rejoining in fourth (Russell) and fifth (Norris) behind second-placed Verstappen, the race was red-flagged after Franco Colapinto had crashed.
"I guess everyone can change tyres for free now," said Norris over his radio, while Russell was a little more forthcoming. "I said it, I said it," shouted the Mercedes driver. "We should have stayed out."
Speaking at race end, Norris clearly felt that this moment had been the game changer.
"It shouldn't have been red flagged," he insisted, "that was the crash in the end which caused the red so that's life sometimes. You take a gamble and it's paid off for them.
"It's not talent, it's just luck," he added, an obvious reference to Verstappen's win.
"I don't care about the hindsight side of things," said the Briton, who leaves Brazil 62 points adrift of his title rival, "that's luck for them, nothing more.
"They got lucky on a rule that no one agrees with," he continued, referring to the ability to change tyres under a red flag. "Probably they agreed with it but every driver has disagreed with it in the past.
"Today it benefitted them, it could have benefitted us if we just stayed out, but that's a stupid thing to think of. Just a bit unlucky today, nothing more. Of course, it's disappointing."
"We weren't quick enough. Max was easily quicker than us. I think if he went from the front, he probably would have lapped us. Pace is good, but the Red Bull was way faster."
Starting from 17th on the grid, shortly after the restart he took the lead from Esteban Ocon and went on to post a string of fastest lap eventually crossing the line almost 20s ahead of the Frenchman.
Check out our Sunday gallery from Sao Paulo here.