Lando Norris said him picking up a track limits strike while trying to overtake was one of the “silliest rules” that Formula 1 has.

Having lost out to Leclerc in the opening lap, Norris was trying to regain second place but had to be extra careful about keeping all four wheels on the track with the threat of a penalty looming.

Lando Norris brandishes track limits one of F1’s ‘silliest rules’

Norris’ desire to get past Leclerc quickly in order to attack leader Max Verstappen resulted in him pushing his McLaren harder than he perhaps would have liked and as a result, he was one of the first drivers to be given the warning for exceeding the track limits on three occasions.

But Norris has argued that if one of the strikes came from attempting an overtake then that should not form part of his quota.

“The places which were easy to go off were Turn 9 over the crest of the hill, and then the last two corners,” he said. “I think I was on three strikes by like lap 10. So I didn’t put myself in the best position.

“But then one of my strikes was because I was racing. I think that’s one of the silliest rules that we have — we’re invited to try and race, but if you race too much, you get a penalty for it.

“And I got a track limits [strike] for trying to go around the outside and losing time to Charles. So, doesn’t really make much sense in terms of going racing.

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“But it definitely made my life that little bit trickier, especially Turn 19, with the wind, it was pretty inconsistent.

“It’s difficult to just be always on the limit and not make mistakes — which I obviously made a couple too many of, too early on. But a little bit more cautious at the end because I knew I couldn’t afford a penalty. But I took the risks I needed to.”

Norris twice made it past Leclerc to finish P2 and cut the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri down to 14 points.

Asked about his title chances, Norris insisted he was only focusing on each weekend as it comes.

“I can only score the most points I can every weekend,” the 25-year-old said. “So the more points I score, the better it is for both situations. It doesn’t matter. Nothing changes.

“I don’t have to do anything different for either-or. It’s quite simple: just try and beat both drivers and life’s easy then!”

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