Fast enough to build an unassailable lead, Lando Norris was too quick to catch the VSC pit window. And so his flawless F1 Madring weekend ended cruelly, as even the winner acknowledged, Mark Hughes says
After all the fears of drama and chaos presented by the ‘high-speed Monaco’ of Madring, a remarkably incident-free race ensued, with but a single short VSC for a stationary car.
That VSC shaped the race, because Lando Norris — in truly scintillating form from a dramatic pole position lap — was already 5sec past the pitlane entry as it was imposed. His lead over Kimi Antonelli was almost 7sec after just 14 laps, but that meant the Mercedes was able to stop under the VSC, which was rescinded just as Norris was heading for the pits a lap later. That won Antonelli a race he was going to lose and lost Norris one he was set to win.
