Motor Racing: Stella Thinks Norris Should Have Paused Before Challenging Verstappen

By Matthew Majendie
MIAMI (News in A Day) – Lando Norris ought to have delayed passing Max Verstappen during the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday instead of attempting to overtake him right away, said McLaren’s team principal, Andrea Stella.

Norris began from the front row next to pole position qualifier Verstappen of Red Bull, but he had to yield ground to the four-time world champion entering turn two and fell back to sixth place by the end of the first lap.
He fought his way back to second place, trailing his winning teammate Oscar Piastri, however, Stella believed this could have been managed differently.
"Looking back at the initial lap, it might have been more prudent for Lando to ease off and acknowledge that he could secure the lead later in the race since his vehicle had sufficient speed. However, this insight only comes with the advantage of retrospect," he explained to Sky Television.

Norris and Verstappen nearly had a coming together later on in the race, which resulted in the McLaren driver giving back the place before later passing his championship rival to move into second.
Stella maintained that returning the position was the correct course of action, highlighting an incident occurring merely two weeks prior where Verstappen received a five-second penalty for not ceding the top spot back to Piastri following overtaking him by taking a wider line.
"I believe that decision was correct since Lando, according to us, was beyond the track limits, and therefore we had to yield the racing line," stated Stella.
Those are some minor misfortunes, yet you must act properly and justly. It might have resulted in a penalty, hence it was the correct course of action.
Meanwhile, Norris criticized Verstappen's strategy during the race, stating that he had no option but to take a wider line to prevent a collision when battling for the lead at the beginning.
The British driver stated in his post-race interview: "What can I say? If I don’t take risks, people grumble. But if I do take risks, people still grumble. So, you just can’t please everyone."
"But it’s the way it is with Max - it’s crash or don’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position then you can just about get there. But I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today."
(Reported by Alan Baldwin; Edited by Saad Sayeed)
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