Lando Norris says he was losing his cool, "swearing and shouting" inside his helmet when he encountered a slow-moving Sergio Perez during the VSC in the Japanese Grand Prix and lost precious ground on race leader Max Verstappen.
Race control activated the Virtual Safety Car on lap 14 of the race at Suzuka to clear debris that was on the track following a collision between Sergio Perez and Haas' Kevin Magnussen.
At that point, Norris was five seconds behind Verstappen but as he approached Spoon corner, the McLaren driver encountered Perez who was circulating at a very low speed.
The Briton had to back off but didn't know whether the Red Bull driver had an issue of if he had slowed to back up him up.
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Therefore Norris was unsure whether he could overtake Perez under the VSC regimen without risking a penalty. This allowed Verstappen to extend his advantage.
"The thing is you can't overtake under the VSC unless it’s obvious the guy has a problem," explained Norris who eventually went on to finish second behind Verstappen.
"I didn't know if he had a problem, or whether he was just backing me up. I didn't know and I couldn't take the risk of just overtaking him.
"He was going so slowly and then when we get the flashing dash for the VSC ending, he went into first gear and then I was on the outside of him because he was going so slowly, and then he almost crashed into me. So, I honestly have no idea.
"I was shouting in my helmet. I was swearing quite a bit, but I was so confused. I didn't know what I could do. I'm losing time to Max. The Ferrari guys were, I think, 1.4 seconds behind me after being I think 12s or 13s, so I lost 10 seconds. And I didn't know what I could do at the time."
Norris said that if Perez was nursing his damaged car back to the pits, then he should have "made it obvious" that he had a problem.
"If he has a problem, he should pull over and make it obvious that he has a problem," he said. "He didn't and therefore I couldn’t take the risk of passing under a VSC, so no idea.
"I don't think it would have changed the world, it just made me stress for a little bit more. But it would have been maybe just a bit better to put Max under a little bit of pressure at least, after that. I don't think we would have been quite as far behind.
"It was a frustrating time, but maybe I'll ask next time what you're allowed to do. I think I did the right thing, so all okay."
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