Norris Hits At Perez After Disputed Incident: 'He Crashes Into A Lot People'

Monday, 27 November 2023 at 16:00

Updated at Tuesday, 02 January 2024 at 20:24

McLaren driver Lando Norris took a jab at Sergio Perez over their incident during the last race of the season - the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Stewards' decision to award Sergio Perez a five-second penalty for a collision with Lando Norris on lap 47 of the race at Yas Marina Circuit has been quite heavily disputed by the Mexican F1 driver.

He expressed his disagreement with the penalty over the team radio after the race insulted the stewards. As a consequence of his actions after the race, he received a formal warning.

Norris who was involved in the incident first told the media he was impressed by the collision with Perez as he actually tried to let him pass, but later, he told Viaplay he was expecting it:

"I was expecting it to be honest. It was nothing new. He crashes into a lot people so not something new for anyone to know."

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After taking a jibe at the Red Bull driver, Norris explained the incident with him did not affect his race result too much. The 24-year-old continued:

"But I did give him a lot of space. And so it didn't change my race in the end of the day. So it was a tough day. We just didn't have the pace we wanted."

While McLaren had good enough pace to secure the fourth place in the Constructors' Championship, Norris thought his car still lacked one-tenth of a second per lap to perhaps compete for the podium.

"We struggled a little bit just, one-tenth a lap. One and a half tenths lap was all I needed to maybe catch the cars ahead, but we didn't have it."

Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri finished the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in P5 and P6 while Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll needed a much better result and achieved only P7 and P10. The McLaren driver concluded: