Leclerc should have overtaken Verstappen in the restart of Imola F1

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris is of the opinion that Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc should have overtaken Max Verstappen during the Imola race winner’s brief off-track moment when the red flag restarted in 2021.

Verstappen was preparing to get the pack back up to speed after the Emilia Romagna event was cut to clear up the debris from George Russell and Valtteri Bottas, who crashed badly as the Red Bull driver did in the last Curves lost control.

He spun left over the curbs of the first Rivazza corner and appeared to briefly drive all four wheels over the white line at the edge of the track – although the footage of Leclerc’s car is unclear that this happened.

Had Leclerc chosen to continue, Verstappen would have been entitled to try again in front of the first safety car line (the lap was considered to be another formation lap despite the lack of standing starts), but the Ferrari driver would have been too He was allowed to run to the line as if he had taken control of the queue.

In any case, Leclerc thought that Verstappen “always had a bike on the track” and didn’t attack, but Norris, who was behind the two leaders at the time of the incident, believes the Ferrari driver should have played on getting through and later argue about his case.

“I had a great view,” said Norris. “Pretty funny actually. I think Charles could have passed him by in my opinion.

“At that point, Max was out of control and went left and Charles just hit the brakes and slowed down and stopped.

“At some point he has to pass Max because he was standing in front of the barrier for a large part of the corner.

“I don’t know. We may have to ask those responsible what the exact regulation for the departure of all four wheels from the track and the example is [qualifying, where Norris lost his final Q3 time for running too wide at Piratella].

“But at the same time, Max was walking very slowly, so Charles could have passed him at that point. I’m not sure.

“I think if I was in P2 I would have chosen it because then you have a chance of victory. It’s a risk [that’s] Be worth.”

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Norris quickly passed Leclerc after the Ferrari driver fell back from the back of Verstappen’s car when the Red Bull driver finally initiated the restart but later lost second place to resurgent Lewis Hamilton.

Defying Hamilton’s advances for five laps, Norris explained as he approached the final stint: “I pretty much started saving the tires from the first lap after the restart, knowing the last few laps were pretty much would get hard. ” [with Norris on the soft tyres compared to the mediums Hamilton, Verstappen and Leclerc were running].

“And they were. Especially with Lewis at the end. A lot of focus was on the last couple of corners to get the action right and use the battery properly.

“I tried to save as much as possible. In the end, I didn’t have enough rear tires from the last two corners and the chicane to hold him back, but I tried.

“It was a nice little battle. It’s nice to drive unusual cars, I think for us – a Red Bull, a Mercedes and Ferraris and the like.

“It’s nice to play against them. Hopefully we can have more of them in the future.”