“It’s not talent, it’s just luck” fumes Norris as he blames red flag for defeat · RaceFans

Lando Norris repeated his criticism of Formula 1’s red flag tyre change rules after a poor result in the Brazilian Grand Prix effectively ended his chance to win the championship.

The McLaren driver ran second in the early stages of the race, then pitted as the conditions worsened. Soon afterwards the Safety Car was deployed, then the race was red-flagged as Franco Colapinto crashed heavily.

Championship leader Max Verstappen had not pitted by that stage, nor had either of the Alpine drivers. The red flag meant they were able to replace their worn tyres with fresh, without the disadvantage of pitting.

Norris said that was what made the difference in his race today. “You can change your tyres under the red flag, it’s what the others did, so just unlucky and unfortunate,” he told the official F1 channel. “Sometimes it’s just goes your way.”

The McLaren driver urged his team to consider pitting him before he changed tyres, hoping to gain an advantage on race leader George Russell ahead of him. He insisted the team’s tactics were correct.

“So there’s nothing we did wrong,” he said. “I don’t care what people say, staying out was not the right thing to do.

“It shouldn’t have been red-flagged, but obviously there was the crash in the end which caused the red. So it’s just life, sometimes. You take a gamble, it’s paid off for them. It’s not talent, it’s just luck. Just a bit unlucky.”

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Verstappen went on to win the race ahead of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Norris, who took the restart after the red flag in fourth place, fell to finish sixth behind Russell and Charles Leclerc.

“I still made a couple of mistakes,” he admitted. “In the end I had cars on my left, on my right. I locked the rears, I went off, I lost two positions. So a little bit unfortunate there, just my own fault.

“So not a perfect race for me. But I think no matter what, fourth was the best anyone could do today of the people who boxed and didn’t get lucky. But otherwise, we’ll just keep our heads down.”

The McLaren driver is under investigation for a potential infringement at the start of the race where he led the field away on a second formation lap when the start was aborted, without having received a signal to do so.