‘Interfered with a beautiful piece of motorsport’: McLaren seethe at stewards, Leclerc wins US GP

Rarely does the battle for the bottom step on the podium take all the attention off the race winner, but at the Circuit of The Americas the back-and-forth fight between championship contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris had to be seen to be believed.

While Charles Leclerc and Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz jnr secured a clinical one-two result for the famous “Prancing Horse” after acing the start of the race in Austin, Texas on Monday morning (AEDT), it was the battle for third between Verstappen and Norris over the closing stages that made for compulsory viewing.

The battle in Austin between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris was enthralling.Credit: Getty Images

Leclerc started fourth on the grid and came out of the opening corner – a tight, uphill left-hander – with control of the race after a dive bomb down the inside in the lightning-fast Ferrari, which is well in the thick of a three-way dogfight with McLaren and Red Bull for the constructors’ title.

Norris started on pole with Verstappen starting in second but on the inside line. On the first corner the pair ran wide, with Verstappen winning out. And it was just a precursor of what was to come.

Norris complained over his team radio at the time.

“He clearly pushed me off,” he said. “He had no intent to make the corner. Even he went off the track. I had to avoid crashing into him, or him into me.”

On the 52nd lap of the 56-lap race, Norris was in fourth, trying desperately to find a way past his title rival Verstappen at turn 12, and he looked like he’d made a vital overtake to claw back some championship points going into the final stages of the season.

Though Verstappen had put in a defensive driving masterclass for lap after lap, Norris’ move was inevitable – given the pace of his car, and that he had the fresher rubber.

But stewards ruled that Norris had secured the overtake outside the track limits and would later hand him a five-second penalty – dropping him back behind Verstappen into fourth.

Speaking over his Red Bull team radio after the race, Verstappen was calm when talking about Norris’ manoeuvre.

“My god, that was a hard race,” he said. “I tried everything with the defending … that was fun. It’s just a bit weird that you can overtake outside the track.”

Later, in the press conference, Verstappen was much more blunt.

Asked if he sympathised with Norris, he simply said: “No, I don’t. They [McLaren] complain about a lot lately anyway, but it’s very clear in the rules – outside the white line [of the corner], you cannot pass. I’ve been done for it as well in the past.”

But both Norris and his team principal Andrea Stella were more expansive.

“It was obviously not an easy decision [for the stewards], otherwise it would have come a bit sooner,” Norris told host broadcaster Sky.

“I tried, he also went off the track, so if he goes off the track, clearly he’s gone in way too hard and also gained an advantage by doing what he did, but I don’t make the rules.”

Charles Leclerc celebrates his win in Texas.Credit: Getty Images

Norris also spoke about the start of the race, adding: “He’d obviously committed (to the overtake) quite a bit, which he’s got the right to do, but again he went completely off the track.

“I need to look back at it. At the same point, he’s overtaken by going off track … he defends by going off track, he overtakes by going off track, but I’m not going to complain about it. I think Max drove well, he defended well, and we had a good race together, but the rules are the rules.”

Maintaining his composure, Stella explained what would have been Norris’ podium-clinching overtake from his perspective.

“My view is that the way the stewards interfered with a beautiful piece of motorsport was inappropriate because both cars went off track, so both cars gained an advantage,” he said.

“It’s a shame because it cost us a podium – it cost us a race where we stayed patient after we were pushed off in the first lap, the first corner. We accepted it.

“Having said, very clearly, our position, this kind of decision by the stewards cannot be appealed. For us the chapter is now closed and we move on to the next race.”

Throughout the race, cars across the field were constantly being assessed warnings for “exceeding the track limits”, or running too wide at various corners. It’s a sight that’s far more commonplace at newer circuits, such as in Austin, where the run-off beyond the white lines around the corners is typically bitumen, rather than gravel.

Melbourne’s Oscar Piastri kept his car clear of danger but didn’t quite have the pace of the top four, finishing fifth. New Zealander Liam Lawson, in his first race since taking Daniel Ricciardo’s former RB seat, impressed in ninth after starting second last on the grid in 19th.

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