Norris shouting and swearing at Perez: 'Didn't know what to do'
F1 News
Lando Norris will travel to Qatar with a good feeling. The young Briton finished the Japanese Grand Prix in second place. Nevertheless, the McLaren driver had some hectic moments, including with Red Bull driver Sergio Perez.
A virtual safety car fell in the early stages of the Grand Prix, prohibiting drivers from overtaking others. Lando Norris was driving right behind Sergio Perez. When the lights turned green, Perez kept driving slowly and made himself very wide. Norris had to intervene to avoid a crash with the Mexican.
The podium-sitter couldn't care less: "The thing is you can't overtake in the VSC, and it's obvious that guy has a problem, and I don't know what was going on. I don't know if he had a problem, whether he was just backing me up. I didn't know, and I couldn't take the risk of just overtaking him. He was going so slow, and then when we got the flashing dash for the VSC ending, he went into first gear, and then I was on the outside of him, because he was going so slow, and then he almost crashed into me. I honestly have no idea. I was shouting in my helmet. I was swearing quite a bit, because I was so confused, I didn't know what I could do."
The pressure was also on Norris: "I'm losing time to Max. The Ferrari guys were, I think, 1.4 seconds behind me after being, I think, 12 or 13. I lost 10 seconds, and it's just I didn't know what I could do at the time. If he has a problem, he should pull over and make it obvious that he has a problem. He didn't, and therefore I couldn't take the risk of passing under a VSC."