What Lando Norris did at the Mexico City Grand Prix that shows his ‘fear’ of Max Verstappen

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Lando Norris tried to exact revenge on Max Verstappen 10 laps into the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday. He’d failed to execute a clean move in the USA, though he felt Verstappen’s tactics had been unfair.

Norris had to go off the track to overtake the Red Bull driver at the Circuit of the Americas, incurring a five-second penalty. He argued – to no avail – that Verstappen had released the brake to reach the apex first, ‘claimed’ the corner and then ran him wide.

McLaren sought a review of that penalty but were unsuccessful, which saw Verstappen maintain a 57-point championship lead. It was crucial, then, that Norris got the better of him last weekend.

The Dutchman had taken the lead from Carlos Sainz at the start but soon relinquished it, setting up another wheel-to-wheel scrap with third-place Norris. The 24-year-old looked to pass around the outside of turn four but Verstappen, in the opinion of the stewards, forced him off.

On this occasion, Norris was fully alongside, if not ahead, of the RB20 at the apex. But after running across the grass, he lost momentum.

Verstappen tried to re-pass at turn seven but did so in what Martin Brundle called ‘ridiculous’ fashion. He lunged up the inside, failing to make the corner, and earned himself another 10-second penalty in doing so.

Ho-Pin Tung says Lando Norris’ ‘fear’ of Max Verstappen was obvious at Mexican Grand Prix

After serving 20 seconds’ worth of penalties in the pits, Verstappen dropped to sixth. His Red Bull wasn’t fast enough on the day for him to close the gap to the two Mercedes ahead.

Norris, meanwhile, climbed to second. He reeled in the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and eventually pressured the Monegasque into making a mistake at the final corner.

Thus he gained 10 points to cut Verstappen’s lead to 47. It’s the first time it’s been under 50 since the chequered flag in Monaco (31).

However, writing in a column for nu.nl, racing driver Ho-Pin Tung said Norris missed a chance to make larger inroads. By hesitating to take on Verstappen after lap 10 – apparently because of ‘a certain fear’ – he allowed Sainz to get too far ahead.

“In hindsight, we can also look at it from another angle,” Tung wrote. “Verstappen received a twenty-second time penalty after those actions. What did happen afterwards is that he may have created a certain fear in Norris.

“After those actions, Norris did not try to overtake Verstappen anymore, despite the fact that he clearly had more speed. As a result, he lost contact with the Ferraris and that may have cost him the victory.”

Christian Horner shares whether he’ll appeal Max Verstappen penalties with Lando Norris data

Norris was close behind Verstappen for 17 laps between the penalty incidents and the latter’s pit-stop. He eventually finished 4.7 adrift of Sainz, bemoaning the fact he didn’t have a few more laps to put his old teammate under pressure.

He arrived in Mexico knowing he needed to gain an average of 10.4 points per event. That has now increased to 11.75 despite Verstappen’s poor result.

There are two Sprint weekends remaining in Brazil and Qatar, where 34 points will be on offer rather than the usual 26. But the path to a first title is narrowing.

Red Bull will still be relaxed about the situation, even though they look increasingly unlikely to retain the constructors’ after falling to third. Christian Horner won’t appeal Verstappen’s penalties, even though he brought Norris’ telemetry to a media session to argue they were unfair.