McLaren star Lando Norris is frustrated after a rival Formula 1 driver gained an ‘unfair’ advantage during the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix after getting ‘very lucky’ last weekend.
The 24-year-old narrowly missed out on a second career podium finish around the streets of Monte Carlo last Sunday. Norris finished the Monaco GP in fourth as Charles Leclerc won the Ferrari star’s home race. Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz also got on the rostrum in P2 and P3.
Norris knows what it is like to reach the rostrum in the Principality after sealing a third-place finish in 2021. But the first lap red flag for Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen’s crash dashed the Briton’s hopes of standing under the royal box as he spent every lap struck behind Sainz.
Lando Norris felt Carlos Sainz gained an ‘unfair’ advantage in the Monaco GP
Yet Norris had edged in front of Sainz on the opening lap after the Ferrari racer went straight on at Casino Square. The Bristol-born star held back after spotting that the 29-year-old had a puncture after contact with Piastri out of Sainte Devote, which saw Sainz lock up at Turn 4.
Sainz fell to the back of the field from P3 on the grid after the edge of Piastri’s floor sliced his tyre. But Perez and Magnussen coming together and collecting Nico Hulkenberg halted the Monaco GP before the field completed sector one, so the race restarted with the initial grid.
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Perez and Magnussen effectively gifted Sainz a get-out-of-jail-free card that left Norris irate having moved his McLaren into a podium position at the Monaco GP. The stewards also only restarted the race with the original grid as Zhou Guanyu of Sauber did not finish sector one.
“Carlos was really lucky because he was last and it was his own fault,” Norris said, via quotes by Motorsport-Total.com. “The fact that he was allowed to move up again was, of course, annoying because it meant I had to go back to fourth place. But that’s the rules.
“It was the same when Pierre [Gasly] won [the Italian GP in 2020]. He won because he was given a free pit stop on other tyres. But here he even made a mistake himself. He drove into Oscar and got a puncture. So, that’s very lucky and I don’t think it’s the fairest thing to do.
“But I’m sure there have been moments in the past where I’ve benefited. If you look at it bluntly, it’s obviously frustrating and unfair because someone makes a mistake.
“But because a certain number of cars, or whatever the rule is, don’t cross the line before the red flag comes out, he can undo his mistake and get a free pit stop. It’s just unfair.”
Sergio Perez and Kevin Magnussen’s crash delayed Zhou Guanyu to Carlos Sainz’s relief
Zhou was the only driver still to complete the first sector at the first start of the Monaco GP when the red flags came out. The Sauber driver had to hold back out of Saint Devote due to the extent of the debris strewn over the road from Perez, Magnussen and Hulkenberg’s cars.
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The 24-year-old was even only just arriving at Massenet when the stewards neutralised the race. Zhou could not simply squeeze past the wrecked remains of Perez’s RB20 and the two Haas chassis. But his delay was a welcome relief for Sainz after his contact with Piastri at T1.
Sainz and Piastri were both responsible for their contact out of Saint Devote as both tried to cling on to second. The Ferrari star got a good launch and fired his car down the Australian’s inside at T1. But the McLaren racer hung on around the outside and squeezed back in front.
The post ‘It’s just unfair’: Annoyed Lando Norris fumes McLaren rival got ‘very lucky’ in Monaco GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.