Norris: Don’t know if I’ve missed Yellow flag, or just been dumb

Norris started the race from third and took advantage of the fight between pole-starter George Russell and Max Verstappen to take second as the Red Bull driver took the lead, the Mercedes driver dropping to third.

From there on, Norris chased Verstappen down relentlessly, the gap between the two remaining in the range of 1.5-2.0s.

But midrace, the mirror of Williams' Alex Albon got detached and was sitting on the main straight, prompting a Yellow flag.

After that, Norris closed in on Verstappen, which made the latter question whether the Briton slowed down under the Yellow flag, reporting that to the Red Bull pitwall, who found out Norris did not slow down and reported him to the stewards.

The stewards gave Norris a ten-second stop-go penalty, which he served within two laps of the decision and fought after that up to finish tenth.

Reflecting on his penalty, Norris told Sky Sports F1: "Honestly, I don’t know what I’ve done wrong at the minute.

"Apparently I didn’t slow under the yellow. I’m not an idiot, if I knew there was a yellow, I would have slowed down.

"I don’t know if I’ve missed it or just been dumb, but the rule is, if you don’t slow down under the yellow that’s the penalty, so it’s fair penalty," he admitted.

The McLaren driver was quizzed whether the race in Qatar was a missed opportunity as his team are fighting Ferrari for the 2024 Formula 1 constructors' championship; he responded: "Of course. I had clean air at the end, but of course it’s an opportunity missed. That’s quite obvious."

As McLaren's constructors' title chances, Norris added: "High. The team gave me a great car today, so I’m thankful for the team.

"Disappointed that I couldn’t have done a worse job than I did today, and not give them the points they deserved.

"So I’ve made the job of the team much harder than it needs to be. The team are doing a great job but I’ve let them down," he concluded.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella gave his thoughts about Norris' penalty; he said: "We checked the data. Effectively Lando stays flat out.

"We have to say that the sector appeared yellow as soon as Lando had entered the sector, but the requirement is very clear, you need to lift and it’s the responsibility of the driver to recognize that you are in a yellow sector and you need to back off.

"At the same time, I think it’s quite peculiar that the yellow flag was deployed and then was removed but actually the situation in that sector was the same – there was debris on track.

"At some time it deserved a yellow flag, and then a few seconds after, it didn’t, which is just unfortunate, I would say. And then in the application of the penalty, I think we have lost any sense of proportion, and any sense of specificity," he claimed.

The Italian then added: "Can we look specifically at the infringement, at the level of danger associated to the situation and the fact the yellow flag was removed?

"And then judge, using this kind of element—proportion and specificity—rather than taking a look at any kind of rulebook, probably full of dust on top of it, and then apply it without any sense of critical approach.

"So from this point of view, I think there’s an opportunity to do better from the FIA," Stella concluded.

With Norris finishing tenth and his teammate Oscar Piastri finishing third, McLaren head to Abu Dhabi, 21 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors' championship.