Lando Norris revealed after finishing second on Sunday at the Japanese Grand Prix that he was “shouting” and “swearing” at Sergio Perez in his helmet, following a bizarre incident during a VSC.
Norris sat in second for virtually the entire race after overtaking his team-mate on the run into Turn 1 at the start of the Grand Prix, whilst actually trying to overtake Max Verstappen.
The reigning World Champion was simply too quick for Norris last Sunday, leaving the Briton to settle for second.
It was a relatively calm race for the British driver, with the exception of an odd moment with Perez.
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Unlike Verstappen, Perez had an afternoon in Japan to forget, after retiring from the race twice.
Prior to him retiring initially though, the Mexican collided with Kevin Magnussen, following an outrageous divebomb attempt.
The incident caused Magnussen to spin and scattered debris across the circuit, resulting in the VSC.
Due to damage to his front wing, Perez was driving very slowly, something which confused Norris as he suddenly approached the Mexican to lap him.
Norris at first pondered whether the Red Bull driver was trying to hold him up to give Verstappen a bigger advantage, as he was driving well below the VSC speed limit.
According to Norris, Perez’s slow driving cost him 10 seconds, whilst the McLaren driver even revealed that the pair nearly crashed when the VSC period concluded.
“He must have had a problem, right?” Norris questioned after the race, as reported by The Mirror.
“But the thing is, you can’t overtake under VSC and it’s obvious the guy has a problem and I didn’t know what was going on. I didn’t know if he had a problem, whether he was just backing me up, I didn’t know and I couldn’t take the risk of just overtaking him.
“He was going so slow and then when we get the flashing dash for VSC ending, he like went into first gear and then I was on the outside of him because he was going so slow and then almost crashed into me. So honestly, I’ve no idea.
“I was shouting in my helmet. I was swearing quite a bit, but I just got so confused. I didn’t know what I could do. I’m losing time to Max, the Ferrari guys I think 1.4 seconds behind me after being I think 12 or 13.
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“So I lost 10 seconds. And it’s just I didn’t know what I could do at the time. If he has a problem he should pull over and make it obvious that he has a problem.
“So he didn’t and therefore I couldn’t take the risk of passing under VSC.
“I don’t think it would have changed the world, just made me stress a little bit more. But it would have been maybe just a bit better to put Max under a little bit of pressure at least after that.
“I didn’t think we would have been quite as far behind, so yeah, frustrating time. Maybe I’ll ask next time what you’re allowed to do. But I think I did the right thing, so all okay.”