Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz showed some real racing at the Austin Grand Prix. The two used the cars without upgrades and were able to quickly take the lead from the battling leaders Max and Lando. Eventually, Carlos and Leclerc both made it onto the podium with Charles winning the race! They would have been joined by Mclaren racer Lando Norris on the podium, however, the FIA gave Lando a time penalty of 5 seconds which put Max Verstappen in front of him! As you can imagine, the British racing driver was not happy with this decision!
Lando Norris Thought He was Following The Rules
The rules state that if a “defending car”, which was Max in this case, pushes the attacking car off the track and can’t keep their own car within the track limits, then the defending car will have to give up the position. However, this is only if both cars are at the apex of the corner at the same time.
The stewards claim that Max Verstappen was ahead of Lando Norris when they got to the corner, which meant that Lando had no right to the corner and should have slowed down. Instead, he went off track and passed Max in the process. Which resulted in a 5-second time penalty for the driver since he “Went off the track to gain an advantage”.
McLaren Fans Disagree with the decision
Max Verstappen immediately mentioned that Lando had passed him off the track on the team radio, however, he and his team were pretty much the only ones who thought of it that way. Many fans said that Max blatantly pushed Lando off the track and didn’t get a penalty for it.
Multiple sports journalists said that this was just a beautiful piece of racing. The FIA should have kept themselves out of it. However, there are also some people who say that the decision was made in a rush. Many think that the FIA should have taken their time before just dishing out the 5-second penalty to Lando! This eventually cost him the race and some precious points in the driver’s championship!
