Norris: F1 stewards should have rethink after "unfair" penalty

Norris received a three-place grid drop and three penalty points on his licence after he failed to enter the pitlane when a red flag came out during Q1.

Norris was on the main straight and almost at the pit entrance when the session was stopped.

He was heard asking the team if he should enter the pitlane, but by the time he decided to it was too late, and he passed the entrance. He completed an extra slow lap before returning to his garage.

In their decision, the stewards acknowledged that Norris was close to the pit entry, and thus dropped the potential penalty from five places to three.

Norris said that he had no time to react, and was concerned that the pit entry might be blocked.

"In my opinion, I don't think I did anything wrong," said Norris. "t's a tough one, because going at the speeds we do we have to make such a quick decision, what's the best thing and safest thing to do? And I feel like what I did was exactly the safest thing to do.

"For all I know, the pitlane could have been blocked, and you're not allowed to enter the pitlane. And then it could have been a different story. 'Why did you enter the pitlane? You shouldn't have done it.'

"So it's a tough one. I didn't have time to talk to my my engineer and say, 'Should I abort, should I not?' I did everything I thought I should have done. But it sucks, because I guess in the end, there's a rule.

"Also sometimes there's some more leniency to certain situations, when the driver has still done the best thing that's possible to do in that situation.

"So a bit gutted because three places back is going to make our life a lot more difficult tomorrow. I don't feel like it's a fair decision. But it is what it is."

Norris said that the stewards could sometimes have a better appreciation of how little time drivers sometimes have to made a decision.

"For certain situations they should think what it's like to be in the driver's seat for a second. And what they have to react to at the speed they're doing, and the time you have to react to things, and so on.

"I think a reprimand or something is the right thing to do. But [also] to have a bit more understanding in some areas, and be able to, over-decide the actual ruling itself, and have a bit of a rethink on what's actually really fair for the driver, or the team, whatever went wrong.

"I didn't put anyone in harm's way. If anything, I took the safer option out of boxing or not boxing. And that makes even worse, I don't deserve three points on my licence for this. I didn't do anything dangerous.

"I didn't do anything because I didn't know, or I was clueless or anything, there was nothing to do with that. I know what the rules are, and so on. So it's not like I have a lack of understanding or anything like that.

"For some situations they should actually rethink what's going on, has the driver done something wrong, and so on. Not so much in this situation, but can you put the team to blame? And things like that.

"It shouldn't ruin my Sunday for such a thing. Like I said in my opinion it's a bad decision, or just an unfair penalty, an unfair ruling. But it's the way it is, I can't do anything about it."