Palmer sees pit lane incident to be 'desperate attempt by Lando' against Verstappen

17:00, 09 Apr

byKada Sarkozi

The only moment when there was a battle for the victory was the pit lane exit incident between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Former F1 driver turned analyst Jolyon Palmer sees that the McLaren driver was a bit too ambitious.

Max Verstappen managed to win his first Grand Prix of the season at the Suzuka Circuit, converting his pole position into claiming all 25 points last Sunday.

While Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were close behind the defending world champion, a battle never materialised on track, except for when Verstappen and the Briton exited the pit lane together.

Verstappen had a slower stop that helped Norris get closer. "They come out side-by-side. But it's really difficult now for Lando to merge in. And you can see here as they're positioned, he's actually only got half his car on the pit exit line. The rest is on this apron on the outside and certainly the right-hand wheels are," Palmer began on F1 TV.

He also saw that not much separated Norris from the barrier.

"And that's just going to run out into the grass and that's exactly what happens as we play it through. He's just forced wide, off he goes and heading towards that barrier on the outside. And now this is actually remarkably close, when you look at it, it's sideways and there's not a lot of margin there to the barrier for Lando. But clearly, no room at the end and that keeps Max into the race lead."

'Desperate maneouvre by Norris'

According to Palmer, the stewards rightly decided not to hand out penalties for the incident. "There is obviously space here for two cars, but Max doesn't have to be super kind to Lando at the end."

"Lando's filtering in from the apron, his road is about to run out, Max definitely doesn't make it easy for him, but he doesn't have to steer his car down this line to make way for the guy on the right-hand side," the former driver continued.

Palmer saw that Norris had to try something to challenge Verstappen, given they were on the same strategy. "Understandably, he keeps his foot in, and it's a bit of a desperate attempt because he now knows the strategy is bust for McLaren, and it's now on to him to make the difference from the cockpit," he concluded.

This article was written in collaboration with Cas van de Kleut

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