Lando Norris says he has no complaints concerning the severity of his penalty for not slowing for yellow flags within the Qatar Grand Prix and apologized to McLaren for costing the crew factors.
The stewards gave Norris a 10s stop-and-go penalty for failing to gradual for yellow flags throughout the first half of the race when a wing mirror was sitting on the pit straight. On the lap in query, Norris gained greater than half a second on the vehicles round him — setting a private greatest — within the first sector, and he says he was unaware of the yellow flag however didn’t dispute the penalty.
“Disillusioned, after all. I let the crew down,” Norris mentioned. “The crew gave me an awesome automotive in the present day. Simply the quickest on the market and I [expletive] it up.
“I don’t know what I did improper. I’m not an fool — if there’s a yellow flag I do know I have to decelerate, that’s rule primary. [And] don’t go previous individuals. For some cause I didn’t do this in the present day, as a result of I’ve not seen it or I’ve missed it or one thing.
“I’ve to take it on the chin. In the event that they suppose I’ve completed one thing improper, I should have completed one thing improper. I can solely apologize for the remainder of the yr to the crew.
“I didn’t hand over till the tip. I did [the] greatest I might. I’m upset — two factors for the quickest automotive I’ve ever seen.”
When it was put to Norris that some commenters had been shocked on the scale of penalty, he was dismissive of any complaints.
“It’s high quality,” he mentioned. “If I did what they mentioned I did improper, then good on them for giving me the short penalty.”
Norris says he should be certain that he doesn’t make any additional errors in Abu Dhabi subsequent weekend to provide the crew the most effective likelihood doable to safe the constructors’ championship.
“The crew gave me the most effective automotive on the market in the present day,” he mentioned. “I’m very glad and grateful for them to take action. I obtained an excellent begin, I obtained previous George [Russell]. I assumed George can be our largest competitor in the present day and that wasn’t the case; Max was, and he did an unimaginable job.
“We go in the identical as each weekend, eager to win, eager to be the most effective, eager to be the quickest. I simply have to not be an fool and do what I did.”
