{"id":894865,"date":"2026-09-14T01:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T01:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/894865\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T01:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T01:44:11","slug":"how-cutting-corners-and-an-unlucky-vsc-added-intrigue-to-an-uneventful-madrid-f1-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/894865\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cutting Corners and an Unlucky VSC Added Intrigue to an Uneventful Madrid F1 Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday I pondered whether the first Spanish Grand Pix at the Madring would be a race of chaos and safety cars<\/a>, or it would be as quiet as the first race in Baku \u2013 which as it turned out to be the calm before the storm, as subsequent years have demonstrated.<\/p>\n

In fact, Madring produced a relatively trouble-free<\/a> race that not only lacked major drama, but also any semblance of overtaking. That didn\u2019t come as a surprise, as drivers had discovered how hard passing was even in sim running.<\/p>\n

However, there were a couple of intriguing incidents at the front that became points-taking \u2013 Max Verstappen having to give back positions for overtaking off-track, and Lando Norris losing a likely win after what was simply unlucky timing with the safety car.<\/p>\n

A driver handing places back after gaining an advantage, typically by jumping a chicane, has been a regular occurrence over the years. Sometimes the driver knows immediately that he\u2019s likely to be investigated and penalized, so he backs off and gives the place back.<\/p>\n

But often he\u2019s convinced that he\u2019s done nothing wrong, especially when he feels that he was forced off the road by the other guy. On the first lap in Madrid we saw examples of both.<\/p>\n

Aware of how difficult overtaking would be from second on the grid, Kimi Antonelli was so keen to get by pole-sitter Norris that he cut chicanes not once but twice on the opening lap, on both occasions letting the McLaren man back by.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did try, but obviously Lando is not going to let me pass by,\u201d he said. \u201cHe did what he had to do. I found myself cutting the chicane twice. In the second chicane, I thought I could maybe make it, but I felt like it was too risky also for contact. So yeah, I decided to bail out\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, while he let Norris back by, he went off the ideal line and also allowed Verstappen by, dropping to third.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Verstappen had also run over the first chicane at the start, and he was adamant that he did it to avoid contact with Lewis Hamilton, who was running wide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have had damage at the start if I would have stayed on track,\u201d said the Dutchman. \u201cIt\u2019s as simple as that. I just did my own thing in Turn 1, but Lewis went for a move on the first two and bottomed out on the curb, so he just jumped back onto the track, and that\u2019s why I had to go off the road. If I would have stayed there, I would have definitely had contact. My race could have potentially been over in Turn 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen was surprised when, not long after, the Red Bull pit wall asked him to give Hamilton a place back. He disputed it, before finally accepting that he had to do it.<\/p>\n

The problem was that at this point Hamilton was two cars back \u2013 so, to his frustration, Verstappen had to let Antonelli through first and then Hamilton. Not only that, but Hamilton had brake issues, and there was quite a gap. So to fulfill his obligation, Verstappen lost a lot of ground.<\/p>\n

\"F1<\/p>\n

NurPhoto\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Given that initially he was ahead of eventual winner Antonelli, could Verstappen have won without letting the Mercedes past? He didn\u2019t think so, and neither did his boss Laurent Mekies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to could we have won the race?\u201d said Mekies by Road & Track. \u201cNo, I don’t think we could have won the race. A. because they were faster, B. because I think as much as it is a painful and difficult decision to make at that moment, I think the guys on pit wall did a very good job analyze the situation in as cold manner as they could, and took a fast and strong decision, and I think it would have been very, very difficult to think we could have avoided a penalty, as much as it is frustrating to be in that situation. But I think it would have been very difficult. And then, once you have a five- or 10-second penalty, it can affect your race in many different ways. But certainly doesn’t get you in a better position than P2.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it didn\u2019t harm Antonelli\u2019s progress when Verstappen moved over and let him by, and later in the race the Italian benefited from the other talking point of the day going in his favor.<\/p>\n

Norris had a useful cushion over Antonelli when Lance Stroll stopped on track with a mechanical issue. It was perfect timing for a pit stop, and thus everyone anticipated a Virtual Safety Car, which would make that stop cheap \u2013 trimming the loss from around 25 seconds to 13.<\/p>\n

Alas for McLaren and Norris when it came; he was five-plus seconds past the pit entry, and it was too late. Inevitably, behind him, Antonelli jumped into the pits, as did Verstappen and George Russell. It wasn\u2019t quite over for Norris \u2013 if the VSC remained in place for a lap, he could come in next time around. However, it was withdrawn just before he reached the pit entry.<\/p>\n

To the surprise of many observers, he still came in and paid the price of a green flag pit stop, with a slow tire change making the loss even worse.<\/p>\n

He thus dropped way behind not only Antonelli, Verstappen and Russell, but also Charles Leclerc, who opted to stay out. So why did he pit under green and not wait for another yellow situation?<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to come in at the end of the lap because it was the only chance,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that everyone\u2019s kind of on colder tires and you\u2019re still minimizing the pit loss. The medium tire was destroyed, and the hard tire was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the race panned out, Norris recovered to finish third behind Antonelli and Verstappen, but he clearly had the pace to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were just insanely unlucky today,\u201d he said. \u201cI was the only one on the whole grid who didn\u2019t get the chance to do the pit stop. That\u2019s just unfortunate. It\u2019s happened in races, and there\u2019s been plenty of times where I\u2019ve gained from it in the past and times where I\u2019ve lost from it, and it\u2019s racing, but never when fighting for a win. So, I think it\u2019s probably one of the first times a win has been lost simply because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norris was correct that he was the only driver without the chance to pit under the VSC, but it was pure bad luck, as race control doesn\u2019t pay attention to who might lose out or benefit.<\/p>\n

He made the logical point that perhaps a VSC should not disadvantage anyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have spoken about it in the past several times,\u201d he said. \u201cAbout how it can be at least covered for one lap, or everyone has the opportunity to do the pit stops, or you just block the pit entry, and no one can box apart from if you have a puncture or something. So, I think there\u2019s a few things you could do to make it simpler and fairer for everyone, but that\u2019s a bigger discussion. This is not something I can just ask for. I think it\u2019s something, as a group of drivers, I think we would all want, but there\u2019s a lot more to it, depending on if it\u2019s raining and there\u2019s a VSC, and you\u2019re on slicks, does it mean you can box or not? You know, so it\u2019s a complicated subject.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think everyone wants the same thing, and that\u2019s just fairness for everyone. Of course I\u2019m complaining about it today. I could benefit from it next week, next time out, and I could win because of it. I have to take it on the chin, but I just hope it doesn\u2019t happen to anyone again, because it\u2019s just not how you should lose a race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Saturday I pondered whether the first Spanish Grand Pix at the Madring would be a race of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,183855,782,309952,784,578,576,577,237154,1642,309951,273948,82],"class_list":["post-894865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-collection-motorsport","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-9c5c9440-74a5-4c8a-b039-19b71ac9dd9c","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-f1-madrings-what-ifs-and-vsc-frustrations","tag-sponsored-false","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}