Lewis Hamilton takes aim at F1 nitpickers for punishing Lando Norris in Qatar

Lewis Hamilton felt as though Lando Norris was unfairly punished in having his third-place qualifying spot snatched away from him despite benefitting from both McLaren drivers having their lap times deleted. High winds around the Losail International Circuit created difficult driving conditions on Friday for drivers up and down the grid.

Despite the adverse weather, race stewards refused to alter the strict rules on track limits. Drivers were finding out just how hard it was to keep the car on the track during free practice and that continued into Q1.

Norris already had a lap time deleted in the first qualifying session, but he was able to make up for it later on. He appeared to put his car on the front row for Sunday’s race with a stellar lap towards the end of Q3.

The Briton had his first effort deleted and left nothing out there on his second attempt as he once again pushed the limits. But Norris was adjudged to have run off the track during his final flying lap with the race stewards deleting his lap time for a third time.

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It pushed Norris from second all the way down to 10th on the grid for Sunday’s race. Oscar Piastri similarly was demoted late in the session as he dropped down to sixth with Hamilton being bumped up to third.

However, the Mercedes star clearly felt as though he didn’t belong in the press conference for the top-three drivers. He said: “I think the new kerbs are great. When I went around on the scooter yesterday I thought they were big but they’re really good. Like Max said, when you go beyond the highest point of the kerb you lose time.

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“I don’t feel like at this track we need track limits, it’s something the stewards brought in a couple years ago. Lando should be up here.

“I think we can take these kerbs to a bunch of other tracks because obviously MotoGP are fine with these kerbs. When you go beyond them you lose time so it shouldn’t be the white line necessarily.”

Hamilton’s third-place may also be under threat though as the Brit is under investigation for failing to follow the race director’s instructions relating to maximum lap time earlier in the session.

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