An involuntary help to Norris
The turning point of the Miami Grand Prix, which gave Lando Norris his first victory in Formula 1, was certainly the entrance of the Safety Car following the accident involving Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant. The safety car facilitated the McLaren driver not only in terms of entry timing, given that the Englishman had not yet made his pit stop unlike all the other big names, but also in terms of positioning on the track.
In a singular way indeed the car did not immediately position itself in front of Norris, leader of the GP at that moment, but ahead of his pursuer, Max Verstappen. We have already explained in this article how the stewards did not take any action contrary to the regulation, which provides that the Safety can be brought onto the track at any time, regardless of the position of the race leader on the track. But it certainly was one unusual casewhich the federation itself was keen to explain, when questioned by the site RacingNews365.
The FIA version
“The Safety Car came in last (it is literally defined as a late call, ed.), so he missed [Lando] Norris of about 20 meters”, explained the FIA. From this point on, the race direction decided – understandably – to give priority to the safety aspect preferring to slow down all the cars behind Norris, rather than let them pass by.
A choice that you may legitimately dislike, but which was born with the intention of giving priority to the removal of the accident: “At that point race control decided to do a slow lap to collect all the cars and allow the marshals to begin recovery of the vehicle [incidentato] – explained the federation – which would not have been possible if they had had all the cars pass directly in front of the SC. Then they waited until all the cars were gathered together before letting them pass“.
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