By Matthew Majendie
MIAMI (Reuters) -Lando Norris should have waited to make his move on Max Verstappen at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday rather than trying to get past immediately, according to McLaren team boss Andrea Stella.
Norris started on the front row alongside Red Bull’s polesitter Verstappen but was forced wide by the four-time world champion at turn two and dropped back to sixth on the opening lap.
He clawed his way back to second behind winning teammate Oscar Piastri but Stella felt it could have been handled better.
“The first lap, with hindsight, it would have potentially been wiser for Lando to lift and accept he would have gained the lead later on in the race because the car was fast enough but that’s with the benefit of hindsight,” he told Sky Television.
Norris and Verstappen nearly had a coming together later on in the race, which resulted in the McLaren driver giving back the place before later passing his championship rival to move into second.
Stella insisted giving back the place was the right thing to do coming just two weeks after Verstappen was given a five-second penalty when he failed to give the lead back to Piastri after going ahead through running wide.
“I think that was the right thing to do because Lando, in our judgement, was outside the track limits and you have to give back the track position,” said Stella.
“That’s a little bit of bad luck but you have to behave and behave fairly. That could have been the risk of a penalty so it was the right thing to do.”
Norris, meanwhile, was critical of Verstappen’s approach in the race saying he had no choice but to run wide to avoid a coming together as they vied for the lead at the start.
The Briton said in his post-race interview: “What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain. So, you can’t win.
“But it’s the way it is with Max – it’s crash or don’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position then you can just about get there. But I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Saad Sayeed)
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