‘I Swore a Lot’: Norris Explains His Off-Track Moment Behind the Safety Car in Malaysia
Lando Norris started fifth in Sepang, but McLaren’s wet-to-dry tyre gamble went the wrong way — while part of the field tried slicks, the team rolled Norris out on mediums, a call he later summed up bluntly: “the wrong one.”
The real drama came later, behind the Safety Car, after George Russell’s car failed mechanically and coasted to a stop on the main straight. Running right behind him, Norris couldn’t judge in time just how slowly the cars ahead were crawling. “I swore a lot. It’s just I couldn’t see from the angle and, from where I was, how much everyone had stopped because of George on the inside,” he explained.
The result was a trip through the gravel and a temporary slide down to 11th. “It’s hard when you’re directly behind to see if they’re going 100, 200, or 10, and they were going 10,” he added, describing the disorienting judgement call of closing speed behind a Safety Car.
The stewards weren’t entirely forgiving either — Norris picked up a reprimand for “driving erratically under Safety Car conditions, leaving the track and re-joining unsafely.” He still clawed his way back to ninth by the flag, with teammate Oscar Piastri finishing sixth.
Source: Formula1.com (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/i-swore-a-lot-norris-explains-off-track-moment-behind-safety-car-in-malaysia-after-p9-finish.65txlrZKsVDzVDMjhZiQ8m)
