Lando Norris bemoaned Formula 1's Virtual Safety Car rules after he appeared to lose a nailed-on Spanish Grand Prix win, saying "it's a rule that shouldn't define a race."
Norris had been coasting to victory and building a big gap to Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen when Lance Stroll stopped trackside and triggered a Safety Car on lap 15 just after the McLaren driver had passed pit entry.
The VSC slows the field to a delta time on the dashboard and effectively gave Antonelli and Verstappen pit-stops at a much lower time loss -- by the time Norris reached the pits a lap later, the VSC had ended and rivals had returned to racing speed. Antonelli won just ahead of Verstappen and Norris, who was unable to find a way past on a Madrid circuit with limited overtaking opportunities.
"It doesn't feel as good because I think Lando today deserved the win," Antonelli admitted afterwards. Norris gave McLaren a rousing radio message after the race, urging them to focus on the positives from the pace showed at the start of the race.
"Let's take it on the chin," he said on his radio after crossing the finish line. "We were too quick! That's all it was. Very unlucky today guys, we deserved to win quite easily. Big thank you. Didn't think we should have had a chance here, we should have won. Well done guys. Keep it going, and I'll keep delivering. We can still win plenty of races this year."
Speaking afterwards, the reigning world champion said the VSC rule had too big an impact on the outcome of the contest. Asked if there was anything McLaren could have done to pre-empt the VSC decision when they saw Stroll off the track, Norris said: "I'm past the pit lane, so I need to speak to the team, but it's not a guessing game, you know.
"I was just unlucky, I was the only one on the whole grid that doesn't get a pit stop. So I lose 20 seconds on the whole grid. This is out of my control, it's out of their control, it's a rule that shouldn't define a race.
"You know, a race should be won by the guy who can put in the best performance, who maybe takes a risk by going long in a pit stop, long in a stint, and maybe you get a Safety Car later on and things can help, because you know that's one of the big factors. But for everyone to get a Safety Car, a VSC pit loss, that means you get nothing. It's just, it's unfair, but it's happened in the past, others have won from it, I've probably won it from it in the past.
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"It's just, I don't think many people have lost a race [so blatantly] over it. It's frustrating, I don't feel like it's the way you should lose. We've spoken about it in the past in the drivers' briefing, saying they should leave it out, at least for a lap, so it's equal for everyone.
"Today I was the only one that lost out, and I lost out about 20 seconds of race time, and that's not how it should be."
The result leaves Norris 106 points behind Antonelli, whose win inched him closer towards a maiden F1 championship.
"Lando was gone, team did a great job and the VSC came out a couple seconds after we went by and went away a couple seconds before we could pit," McLaren boss Zak Brown said.
"Nothing we could have done. Great to hear Lando's radio message to 'shrug it off.' That was our race by 20 or 25 seconds.
"He was dominant, he was gone. Managing, great tyre wear -- a league of his own."