Norris’ Austin penalty ’strange and bizarre’ - Wolff

Toto Wolff is siding strongly with McLaren, over the penalty that prevented Lando Norris from narrowing the championship points gap on Sunday.

Norris and championship leader Max Verstappen were locked in a spectacular battle for the last podium place in Austin when the McLaren driver left the track limits as he overtook Verstappen.

It cost Norris a five-second penalty.

"That’s the rule," Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko insists. "We insisted on our rights, generally I prefer the attitude ’Let them race’.

"But we have extended Max’s lead by another five points, so we are more than satisfied. I think this is a turning point.

"We were not as good in the race as in the sprint, but in Baku we took the first step with the car, in Singapore the second, and here another one.

"The Ferraris were incredibly fast, but for us it was all about the fight with Norris. The world title is what we want and we have taken a big step towards that here. Of course Max will want to win more races, but in the end only the title counts," Marko added.

McLaren team boss Andrea Stella, however, blasted the penalty as "inappropriate" - and, fascinatingly, he was backed even more stridently by Mercedes’ Toto Wolff.

The Austrian suggests the FIA may be acting in a biased manner in favour of Red Bull.

"In the sprint we saw some of these incidents that were exactly the same and there was no penalty," said the Mercedes team boss. "I see this penalty as just completely strange and bizarre.

"I think we know why, but I can’t say it on TV. Just that sometimes there are correlations when it comes to interesting decisions like this."