Norris: Perez passed me because contact knocked my foot off throttle

2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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Lando Norris says he wasn’t able to keep Sergio Perez behind him because his foot came off the throttle when the pair made contact during the Dutch Grand Prix.

Perez passed the McLaren driver for ninth place with seven laps to go by driving around the outside of him at Tarzan. The pair made contact at the exit of the corner and Perez claimed the position.

Norris revealed he lost momentum because his acceleration out of the corner was disrupted by the contact.

“The whole car bounced a lot,” he explained. “So my foot came off [the throttle] and I thought something happened, I thought I lost drive in the car.

“But then I came on throttle and I went into the corner praying that the suspension wasn’t broken or anything. It was a bit of a risk. I still tried to get back past him, I stayed alongside, but just the momentum that I lost from my foot coming off-throttle cost me the position.”

The pair clashed previously during the Austrian Grand Prix, where Norris was penalised after Perez went off. He said the incident was on his mind as they fought for position again.

“I can’t look in my mirror the whole way around the corner, so a bit of it has to be done on judgement and expectation of him respecting, him knowing I’m not going to make his life easy, me knowing he’s going to try and go around the outside. I think I left him enough [room]. I need to look from an onboard and stuff.

“But of course I’m going to come on throttle and try and squeeze him and not make his life easy. But it’s only that, I’m not going to try and make contact or try and force him off or anything.

“The last time I did, I got a penalty. I’m not stupid, I’m not silly, but I’m not going to let him past either.”

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2021 Dutch Grand Prix

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36 comments on “Norris: Perez passed me because contact knocked my foot off throttle”

  1. LN is the new JPM.

    1. @faulty Too far fetched. Montoya was original and had BALLS, Lando for now just has british media behind him, overhyping every single thing.

      1. Rubbin’ is racin’! Nice wake-up “bump”!

      2. @f1-fan What? Thhe British media was singing his praises like he was the new messiah just because he was a challenge to the Schumacher brothers, their hate objects.

        Just listening to James Allen showing his massive crush going on about ‘monster Montoya’ every time the Colombian was mentioned was seriously grating.

        British media hardly gives Norris a mention. It’s Hamilton all the way.

  2. So his fault then. On the onboard you could see him looking at his left, but he kept moving his car towards the outside.

    I was with him at Austria but this one I feel was all his fault. He got a big chunk of that Red Bull as well… Without, in hindsight, would’ve helped McLaren as Perez just missed passing Sainz.

    1. @fer-no65 Yes it was obvious he looked at Perez to run or bang him off. Such a shame to see Norris driving like this.

    2. @fer-no65 Perez not passing Sainz (maybe also Alonso) was ultimately down to his unforced lockup behind Mazepin.

  3. That was borderline by Lando. Similar to what Charles did to Lewis at Monza 2019. Squeeze the driver although he was more than half-way alongside. Lando was lucky he didn’t get a black and white flag.

    Perez also smartly didn’t do the same that he did in Austria. He just hung around alongside Lando risking the 2nd contact rather than get on the gravel (as he did in Austria).

    Glad no one suffered damage.

    1. As racing driver excuses go, this one is brilliant.

    2. Would like to let you notice: no penalty for norris, sooooooooooo the silly thing fia keeps saying that they don’t take consequences into account isn’t true then? When the driver goes into the gravel, 5 sec penalty, when he stays on track no.

      1. @esploratore1 Yeah I always find that supposed reasoning to be rather silly. Despite what they say, the consequences are always a factor in what degree of penalty is applied. If the Hamilton/Verstappen incident in Silverstone had been slightly less severe and caused no damage, and Verstappen maintained position, then ofc no penalty would be applied. Or if Hamilton’s race had ended due to damage (as would have happened without the red flag) then again I doubt there would be any penalty. It’s only because the party which was slightly more responsible benefited so much that they applied a penalty.

        That’s just one example but there are numerous others you could choose, such as the Perez/Norris incident in Austria you alluded to. This incident was more worthy of a penalty for Norris than in Austria imo, but it wasn’t even investigated because there is an unspoken ‘no harm no foul’ rule in play, which contradicts the ‘consequences are not considered’ narrative.

  4. Lando is becoming the dirtiest driver on track. Just give the space to the faster car idiot.

  5. Lando is the new Maldonado! They should fit Lando’s car with a horn.

  6. An excuse and a half, if I ever saw one.

  7. Leonard ‘Big Lenny’ Persin (@)
    5th September 2021, 20:25

    Love watching Lando, but when he drives like that (looking into the other car and intentionally crashing into them), it’s very disappointing. No need for it. Needs to start cleaning it up.

    Is he getting a bit carried away with himself?

    1. @theessence Seems like it unfortunately

    2. Yea I’d say Lando is driving pretty aggressively and that move was not very intelligent. There’s racing hard and I’d say this has gone beyond that into personal territory aiming to force a competitor off the track.

      Pretty dirty IMO.

  8. I don’t think there was a lot in this one. Came across to me more like a minor misjudgement with the different cornering speeds v tyre compounds 2 apart.

    Lando was trying to get the elbows out but was as much a case of both cars running out of track on the exit and Perez being just that bit further ahead than Lando thought as he washed out wide.

    And the excuse of the throttle is funny, but you do hear it on the onboard, he loses drive when the rear tyre makes contact and when it lands it’s not immediately on throttle, so will probably give him benefit of the doubt.

    1. Lando Scored an own goal if you ask me.
      The corner was already lost and he risked a DNF by that singular action.
      Two cars have negotiated that corner side by side all through the race, only Lando managed to drift wide there.

  9. I struggle to come to terms with the concept of a racing driver who should abandon a corner to another driver. I grew up watching Senna and Scumacher, and that’s just not what I’ve come to expect. If two drivers are fighting for position, it’s up to them and their skill if they end up in a shunt or not. They have to not only find a way past, but also judge the risk and be aware they have to take the position themselves.
    That being said, great drive from Perez today, and a nice little scrape with Norris. Although the RB was much faster then the Mclaren, I don’t know what happened to Norris, he was gaining on Ocon and pulled away from RIC to about 7 seconds, and then just couldn’t get nearer Ocon.
    Also, Alonso’s overtake on Sainz on the final lap was textbook.

    1. @ifiamnotwerymuchmistaken I grew up to think F1 is still a sport where it’s not advantage to the dirtiest driver and that you can’t just push or bump people off the track

      1. IfImnotverymuchmistaken
        6th September 2021, 8:50

        The dirtiest driver? You seem to imply that every time a driver deliberately bumps another driver he’ll get away with it.
        Everytime a passing attempt is made, both drivers choose the intensity of attacking/defending, having in mind that too much can send them into the wall, ending their race, career or even life.
        If a driver attempts an outside overtake, he and he alone is responsible for any contact. You go for the outside of the corner you know you’re going to get driven of the track if you’re not comfortably in front by the end of the corner, and if that happens it’s your own fault. No driver should ever be expected to give a corner as a present to another driver coming from the outside, ever. Be it in the Netherlands, or Austria.
        Perez had a vastly faster car, if he wasn’t able to pass on the outside, he should’ve waited for a better opportunity.
        He went in knowing he’s risking a shunt, got the pass done, and got away with it with some minor damage.
        Job well done. Norris defended well, Perez was faster. End of story.

        1. If a driver attempts an outside overtake, he and he alone is responsible for any contact.

          No that’s obviously not how it works

  10. This was classic. We had the whole row over why Hamilton had no right to a turn because he was behind. Red Bull had drivers “recreate” the situation to show why a driver that is behind has no rights to a line in a corner. And then Perez, who was clearly behind, claims rights to the corner because his car is faster. It is too bad that Perez didn’t get wiped out there because then we would have been treated to Red Bull recreating the situation to show why the driver behind has rights to the corner.

    1. someone or something
      5th September 2021, 22:19

      Apples and oranges, mate

    2. It’s not about who is behind, it’s about who is on the inside of the corner. And in both cases, that was the non-RB driver. If you take a corner in a car faster, the car understeers. If you do that while on the inside while someone is on the outside, you will understeer into him. Because of this, it’s always incumbent on the driver on the inside to make sure there is no crash. The driver on the outside can’t prevent the crash by himself. Basic racing etiquette.

      1. The driver in the inside doesn’t have to yield the line as long as the passing car is not even. This is racing common law. We see this every race.

        1. But it has not been a problem for Ricciardo …
          On the other McLaren.
          So it’s totally possible to fight fairly

  11. What a shame to see a driver with such potential as Lando to become this dirty. I think he’s got something against Perez since Perez said he had pulled the best move of his career on Lando while at RP.
    https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.sergio-perez-move-on-norris-one-of-the-best-of-my-career.1687521327352489735.htm

    1. You must be joking, right?

    2. It’s not just Perez, he is a recidivist with this regard. He’s done some other questionable move like the one on Sainz in Spain where he changed his line suddenly in the last possible moment which could have ended very badly.

  12. Seems lando really wants to finish the championship ahead of Perez and he took it too far this time.

  13. Should have left him more room then shouldn’t you, ya little scamp !

  14. When they made contact Perez still had room, so I don’t see how that’s just Lando’s fault. In fact, when the second harder hit came in, Perez wasn’t even on the kerb, so again he definitely had more room.

    If Perez had stayed wider they could have got around without any contact and he could still have had a chance of overtaking.

    1. that’s stretching it…Perez did nothing wrong – perhaps Norris was trying to mimic Alonso’s defense of Hamilton is Hungary and went to far. There’s defending on the edge, which is what Alonso did, but Norris went too far.

    2. No mate, SP always stayed on the r line, if you look at the end of the video he exits the curve a few cm inside, anything past that was gravel. On the other hand you can see Lando checking mirrors trying to push SP out and expanding his r line as much as possible. Look at Ricciardo’s defence, that’s fair racing. He got surprised this time around bc SP didn’t back down and go into the gravel like he did in Austria, hence Lando’s “slip” on the throttle.

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