“It’s stupid in my eyes” - Norris hits out at rule after stewards’ investigation

Norris is under investigation by the stewards at Interlagos for “alleged failure to follow dance director's instructions”.

This is related to “exceeding the time limit between the Safety Car lines during qualifying” - something that is a common occurrence in F1 2023.

While the rule is in place, the stewards tend to not penalise the drivers as teams argue that they’re trying to get out of each other’s way and avoid impeding, rather than gaining an unfair advanytage.

Speaking about the investigation, Norris said: “I am not even been told what it’s about just yet. I guess it’s because of the delta time. No, I tried to go but there was two cars ahead of me. It’s just a silly rule. 

“Two cars came out of the pit lane at a similar time so one of them has to back off otherwise you’re going to race. It’s silly. One had to back off and I had to back off. This rule… yeah, it’s stupid in my eyes.”

It was a spectacular sprint shootout for the McLaren driver, who secured pole position for Saturday’s sprint race.

Despite securing pole, Norris was downbeat given McLaren’s overall pace didn’t result in a strong result on Friday.

“Of course there’s the hindsight of what could have been yesterday,” he added. “Just with myself there’s been a lot of shoulda, woulda, coulda. I know it and I have accepted it. Qualifying seems to be the thing I need to be improving the most at the minute. 

“My races are very strong, just my qualis are my kryptonite at the second. You always want to improve. 

“Definitely when we have a car which is obviously competitive to be on pole and fight for great positions, of course I am going to be disappointing and annoying at myself when I make mistakes, when I start P6 to make my life a lot harder tomorrow if I started second or first. It’s completely correct, disappointing in my eyes.”