Experts explain: How ‘crafty’ Max Verstappen avoided same penalty as Lando Norris

Max Verstappen avoided a time penalty which hurt Lando Norris at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix.

With debris on the track, Norris was slapped with a 10-second time penalty for speeding under yellow flags.

The frustration for the McLaren driver was that Safety Cars might have come out earlier to avoid the necessity for yellow flags.

Why Lando Norris was penalised at Qatar GP

Anthony Davidson analysed the incident for Sky Sports, saying: “You have to lift under a double yellow.

“There will be confusion from the fans who only saw a single yellow.

“He comes out of the final corner with Verstappen in front. We saw a yellow light, static, on the left-hand side.

“I thought they were referring to that as the one you must lift for. But Verstappen wasn’t lifting either. Because it wasn’t this lap that they were talking about!

“He got pinged for Lap 30, not Lap 31.

“Further down the road we see the double waved yellows. That’s what we should have seen on the world feed, but we didn’t.

“The impressive thing is that Max, crafty Max, with no light on [lifted].

“That’s why he is a four-time world champion!

“He reacted to two yellow flags without a light and without the help of his engineer.

“Then he dobbed in his mate!”

Lando Norris robbed of chance to fight Max Verstappen

Jenson Button said about Norris’ punishment: “It seems severe because it feels like the yellow flag shouldn’t have still been there. There should have been a Virtual Safety or a Safety Car to remove the mirrors.

“If there’s a yellow flag, you have to lift, so you get a penalty. A shame…”

Verstappen overtook George Russell at the start in Qatar to win the grand prix.

Norris settled for 10th after his time penalty.

“We didn’t get to enjoy Norris at the end of the race,” Button regretted.

“The pace he had, and the fight he had, on the way to P10, to score two championship points.”

Norris got the fastest lap to score an additional point.