We all know how cruel a sport Formula 1 is. The premier racing competition holds no prisoner and makes a driver pay for every mistake. This was probably the theme of the Austrian GP as all drivers on the grid, at one point in the race, went over the line. Carlos Sainz, at least in the top ten, faced the worst of it as he was demoted to P6 from P4 after the race. This post-race penalization process is nasty business but someone has to do it. However, apart from the heartaches, there were some drivers who benefitted from this scenario as well namely Lando Norris. Norris not only benefited but also argued his deserved position bump at the expense of his old friend.

Sainz was Norris’s first teammate at McLaren. The two became thick as thieves during their time together and their hard racing during the Austrian GP was proof of that. However, in the end, Sainz’s double overtake on Norris was amounted to nothing as Norris the place he was fighting for against Sainz. Although, it was not all down to poor or good luck as the Brit argued the tough scenario speaking to the media.

Norris said, “It is a lot more difficult than you think to do what we do. It’s not an easy thing. Especially, when you’re under pressure, you’re pushing it to the limit. You’re driving at 280/300/150 kmph. When you’re judging centimeters, it’s a lot quicker than you think.”

Lando further alluded to the post-race penalty chaos & how it should not happen, perhaps in sympathy with Sainz & Co. He said, “It’s so tricky and at time you get caught out and you make a little mistake and you still get a penalty for making a mistake which shouldn’t always happen. But we’ll work on something, of course. You don’t want penalties after races. You don’t want things to change after fans have celebrated and so on.”

In his defense, he said, “Yeah, I was a good boy. I kept within the lines, I did what I was told, and that helps out to a good position.”

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On the other hand, the Brit did not want his countryman to get away with a single penalty.

Lando Norris helped the stewards keep Lewis Hamilton during the Austrian GP

The Brit might’ve given an extremely political opinion on the post-race penalties. However, when it came to Hamilton during the race, the young Brit was the voice of reason. Norris was following Hamilton for several laps after being passed by him on the opening lap. Before the McLaren man could overtake Hamilton, he reported all his infringements to get an advantage over the world champion.

“I was giving commentary on every single corner of Lewis going off. Literally, he was going off in every corner. I reckon he went off five times in one lap, so that’s like a penalty straight away.” He added, “He went off at least 20 times. Every corner for three laps, I was like ‘off,’ ‘off,’ ‘off.’”

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Norris’s constant commentary did earn Hamilton a penalty and he was the first one in the race to receive it. In fact, this was after Hamilton spoke highly of the Brit’s race with the changes McLaren introduced to the MCL60. The same changes Norris was excited about and for good reason as we know now.

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