Lando Norris told off by F1 stewards at Brazil GP as McLaren star breaks “stupid” rule

When he was informed that the Formula One stewards were looking into him for a possible rule violation during the Sprint Shootout at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Lando Norris was not impressed.

The race director’s instructions were purportedly not followed by Lando Norris, who received a rebuke from the Brazilian Grand Prix stewards but managed to hold onto pole position for the Sprint.
After outpacing Max Verstappen for one lap in the Shootout, the British driver will start the short-form race from the front of the grid. But he was under the shadow of a possible penalty.

He was charged with disregarding the directives to keep a minimum lap time between the two safety car lines on the racetrack. He criticized the rule’s existence as soon as he heard about the inquiry.

I tried to go [faster] but there’s two cars ahead of me,” he said. “It’s just a silly rule because two cars came out of the pits at a similar time and crossed the line.

“So one of them has to back off otherwise you’re going to have to race and it’s just silly. Because of them had to back off, I had to back off. So, the rule is stupid in my opinion.”

In the end, he avoided a grid penalty after the stewards considered his case. But they did give the McLaren driver an official reprimand as they felt he could have done more to pick up the pace while on his out lap.

“The Stewards thoroughly reviewed marshalling/positioning data, timing data and on-board cameras,” the official decision document read. “Norris completed a cool-down lap and maintained their delta for most of the lap while following [Yuki] Tsunoda with a reasonable gap.

“Tsunoda crossed the SC2 Line just after [Charles] Leclerc, who was exiting the pit. Therefore, Tsunoda had to slow down to create a gap between them and Leclerc, thus also impacting Norris.

“Norris said in the hearing that they felt they had to choose between passing Tsunoda and going over the delta time, which could potentially impede the latter. The Stewards agree that Norris made a reasonable effort to avoid obstructing the car in front of them while also being fully aware that there was no vehicle following them.

“Nonetheless, the cool-down lap of Norris was not impacted by other cars on flying laps. The Stewards determined that they could have done more to manage the delta time in a better way and therefore consider a reprimand to the driver to be appropriate.”