Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Circuit of the Americas, 2025

Lando Norris says Formula 1’s rules on track limits made it harder for him to race with Charles Leclerc during the United States Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver overtook Leclerc twice during yesterday’s race on his way to second place. However he used up three of his four ‘strikes’ for exceeding track limits before making his first pass.

Norris therefore spent the rest of the race carefully avoiding any further breaches, knowing it would result in an automatic five-second time penalty.

He collected his third and final strike when he left the track at turn 13 while trying to get alongside Leclerc. Norris said that breach should not have been counted against him as he gained no advantage.

“One of my strikes was because I was racing,” he said. “I think that’s one of the silliest rules that we have.

“We’re invited to try and race, but if you race too much, you get a penalty for it. And I got a track limits [strike] for trying to go around the outside and losing time to Charles. So it doesn’t really make much sense in terms of going racing. It definitely made my life that little bit trickier.”

The stewards have the power to disregard a track limits strike if they agree a driver was forced wide by a rival. During Sunday’s sprint race, George Russell argued he should not have been noted for exceeding track limits when he went off at turn 12 by trying to overtake Max Verstappen.

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More than half the field collected at least one track limits strike during yesterday’s race. The Circuit of the Americas is largely bordered by asphalt and breaches occured at seven different corners.

The windy conditions during the race made it harder to avoid going off, said Norris. “Especially turn 19, with the wind […] was pretty inconsistent,” he said.

“It’s difficult to just be always on the limit and not make mistakes, which I obviously made a couple too many of, too early on. [I had to be] a little bit more cautious at the end because I knew I couldn’t afford a penalty. But I took the risks I needed to.”

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