Despite Lewis Hamilton’s Worldly Appreciation, Lando Norris Disses His Compatriot for Flouting the Rules

Mercedes and McLaren have both taken a step backward in the past couple of seasons—with Mercedes no longer at the front of the field and McLaren no longer at the front of the midfield. Even so, the Formula 1 community has gotten to witness its fair share of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris’ intense on-track battles. And the Austrian GP delivered the first one this season between the British compatriots, with Norris coming out on top.

Being the competitor he is, Hamilton had nothing but good things to say about Norris after the race. While talking to the media, he said, “McLaren, well Lando, did a great job today, they were super quick, wasn’t expecting them to be as fast as they were but we weren’t expecting to be as slow as we were so…” The W14 wasn’t in its best form, and Norris—in his upgraded McLaren—beating Hamilton added to Mercedes’ concerns. But while Lewis praised the younger Brit, Lando took a dig at Lewis.

Lando Norris became Lewis Hamilton’s personal steward 

Norris started the race in fourth but got overtaken by Hamilton in P5 going into Turn 1. And until the first round of pitstops, it stayed that way. While it might sound straightforward, it was by no means so. The two pushed each other throughout that time while also testing the track’s limits—Hamilton more so than Norris. And Norris didn’t miss an opportunity to report Hamilton’s trips outside the white lines of the track.

Talking to the media after the race, he said, “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.” After Lando’s continued reports to his team, the FIA started doling out five-second penalties one after the other, Hamilton being the first domino. He added, “He went off at least 20 times. Every corner for three laps, I was like ‘off,’ ‘off,’ ‘off.’”

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Lando further explained that carrying even a little extra pace through corners can add up to a considerable advantage, which was part of the reason he was finding it so difficult to overtake Lewis. But when he heard that Hamilton got only one five-second penalty, he exclaimed that it should’ve been way more than that. His proclamation came true.

Lewis Hamilton and others suffered more consequences for exceeding track limits post-race

After the race, Aston Martin lodged a protest against the provisional classification, stating that many drivers weren’t sufficiently penalized. The FIA reviewed the race footage and handed post-race penalties to eight drivers, shaking up the finishing order. One of them was Lewis Hamilton, who crossed the line in P7 but got demoted to P8 after a 10-second post-race penalty. 

But the driver who this affected the most was Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari driver finished in P4 ahead of Norris in P5. But the Spaniard also received a 10-second penalty, demoting him to P6 behind Norris and Alonso. Given how the race and post-race penalties worked in Norris’ favor, he would’ve been pleased with them.

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Do you think Hamilton deserved the 10-second penalty post-race?