Lando Norris insists that he has no regrets about pitting for tyres under the VSC in the Sao Paulo GP before a red flag gave rivals a free tyre change.
However the McLaren driver called the regulation that allows such changes “a silly rule that no one agrees with.”
A red flag then allowed all three to get fresh intermediates under the stoppage without penalty, which ultimately helped them to secure the final podium positions.
Having passed Russell before the red flag Norris was thus in fourth place for the restart, only to drop behind the Mercedes driver when he ran wide.
At a later restart he had a second off, and eventually finished in sixth place after a hectic afternoon.
“You can change your tyres under the red flag, it’s what the others did,” he said. “So just unlucky, unfortunate. Sometimes it just goes your way. So nothing we did wrong.
“I don’t care what people say. Staying out was not the right thing to do. It shouldn’t been red-flagged, but obviously there was the crash in the end, which caused the red. That’s life sometimes. You take a gamble, and it’s paid off for them. It’s not talent, it’s just luck.”
Asked by formu1a.uno about the stop Norris said that all F1 drivers dislike the rule that allows a free tyre change.
“It was the right time to box,” he said. “So no regrets. Just unlucky. It’s a silly rule that no one agrees with, but you’ll always agree with it when it benefits you. So every driver said that they don’t agree with it, and they wanted it changed.
“So it’s just unfortunate, but it’s the rule. You win some you lose some. It benefited them today. So, well done to them.”
Norris’s day was made worse when he ran wide at a safety car restart and lost out to Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri, although he soon moved back ahead of the Australian.
“I still made a couple of mistakes in the end,” he said. “I had cars on my left, on my right. I locked the rears, I went off. I lost two positions. So a little bit unfortunate there.
“My own fault. So not a perfect race for me. But I think no matter what, fourth was the best anyone could do today, of the people who boxed and didn’t get lucky.”
It was a rollercoaster day for Norris, one that included a qualifying session that saw him on the bubble for elimination in Q1 before taking pole.
“It’s been an up and down weekend, for sure,” he said. “Not a lot more I could do. I’m sure George probably feels like he won the race today, he deserved it more than anyone else. I probably finished third realistically, so it’s tough.
“Max probably would have come through anyway, and probably beaten us. Just unlucky for us, nothing more than that. I made a couple of mistakes, which I own up to, and it cost me a couple of positions in the end.”
