Lando Norris says it was impressive that Sergio Perez hit him in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix despite leaving what he felt was excessive space for the Red Bull.
Perez was trying to overtake Norris for fourth place into Turn 6 but was fighting the car and understeered wide, hitting Norris on his outside. The wheel-to-wheel contact saw Perez handed a five-second penalty that later led to him branding the stewards “a joke” – a comment that earned him a warning – but Norris was surprised to be hit after giving up the corner.
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“He was ahead, I tried to let him past, I was like four car lengths away from the apex, and somehow he still crashed into me,” Norris said. “Impressive. I don’t know, I literally tried to let him past and somehow he crashed into me.”
Perez was able to pass Norris cleanly a lap later and the incident didn’t cost McLaren any further, as Oscar Piastri backed up his teammate in sixth place to secure fourth in the constructors’ championship. But with Charles Leclerc and George Russell edging away throughout the race, Norris missed out on fourth in the drivers’ standings and admits he had expected to be more competitive in race trim.
“I think the places we were struggling were clear, just the very slow speed corners – Turn 5, Turn 6 and 7, and 12/13/14, the places we know we’re not strong enough, which is the very slow speed. We were expecting a little bit more, with the cooler temperatures, we were expecting the race pace to be a little bit stronger than we had.
“We were definitely missing something but because of the lack of pace I had to push very hard to keep up with the Mercedes and Ferrari and when I did that I destroyed the tires very quickly. So I was in a tough battle to win, but I did what I could. Not quite enough, but we finished ahead of Aston which was my main target.
“In the back of your head, would I love to be fourth? Yes. Charles jumped me, so nothing I could do about that, he had a very good weekend. But no, if you’re not first you’re last, so it doesn’t bother me too much.
“It’s just a good to have thing but doesn’t change my mentality in any way. So respect to those guys ahead of me and everyone, but the main thing was the team, priority in the end, it’s first or nothing for me.”