Lando Norris slams ‘not fair’ yellow flag call: ‘People can say what they want’

Lando Norris has said the yellow flag that “ruined his weekend” was “unfair”, but he’s clinging to the positives of rescuing fourth place.

Norris was knocked out in Q1 in Azerbaijan, leading to a rescue mission of a race as he fought his way forward from his 16th-place grid slot to finish in fourth.

Lando Norris: It ruined my whole weekend

Norris’ qualifying came to a compromised end as he encountered a yellow flag on his final Q1 run, as he came up behind Esteban Ocon’s Alpine.

Ocon had clipped the barriers on his own flying lap and was slowly making his way back to the pits when he backed off to allow Norris through, resulting in the yellow flags being shown for Norris and forcing him to slow down.

The McLaren driver had been in the elimination zone and, due to not being able to improve his time once the yellow flag was shown, was doomed to start the race from his compromised position.

Running the hard tyre for his first stint, he was able to recover back to fourth place as he fitted the mediums for an attacking second stint – his pace was such that he was able to attack and pass championship rival Max Verstappen to help close the gap a little in the Drivers’ Championship.

But more was on the table, as teammate Oscar Piastri proved by winning the race and coming out on top of a thrilling battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, as Norris pointed out to media following the chequered flag.

“No, it wasn’t fair,” he said, when asked if he had spoken to the FIA about the yellow flag.

“You don’t have to be a scientist to work that out. I don’t know – this is not for me to decide, it’s not for me to say.

“It wasn’t fair, and for it to ruin my whole weekend… I know I got a fourth today, and that’s not bad, but it could have been better.

“Oscar showed what was possible today, so it was unfair. There was no yellow the whole lap, and they put a yellow out just as I came past.”

Norris explained that his mistake at Turn 16 would not have been enough to leave him outside the top 15, feeling he would still have made it through to Q2 regardless.

“Did I go off the track just before it? Yes. Would I still easily have got into the top 15? Yes,” he said.

“There are a lot of people who thought that that ruined my lap. I was still easily in, even with my off-track.

“I only lost a couple of tenths, and I still easily would have been in so, yeah, people can say what they want.

“I find a lot of it funny, but this was out of my control, and it was something that was unfair, and it cost me a good amount of points in the championship today, and ruined my weekend.

“So it’s disappointing, especially because of how good the car was today. I’m the guy who’s thinking of what could have been, not how we did today, necessarily. But I’m very happy with today, still.”

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Andrea Stella: Constructive conversations were had with the FIA

McLaren sought to speak to the FIA about the timing of the yellow flag, given the initial warning had appeared to be a white flag (a warning that there’s a slow car ahead), before changing to a yellow flag as Ocon responded by slowing further due to Norris closing in behind him.

Team boss Andrea Stella confirmed conversations had been held with the FIA to clarify what had happened, and how the situation could be better handled going forward.

“We talked to the FIA,” he said.

“We tried to understand the point of view as to why the white flag became yellow when Lando went through the high-speed section.

“We understand that, in the opinion of the local marshal, it was a yellow flag because of the speed differential between the two cars.

“Here it really goes in the interpretation of what is safe and what is not safe.

“We have never been critical of the FIA in relation to this episode. We were constructive in our conversation. We said, like, maybe we should judge together with the drivers whether that’s a white flag or a yellow flag because it’s not in the area of mathematics – it is in the area of understanding or perceiving what is danger.

“So the conversation happened. It was constructive. It was very costly for us that it was a yellow flag. We will assess in the future whether this case should have deserved either of the two flags.”

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