Race director Masi puts Norris in his place: 'Even a six-year-old knows that'

Penalty points on his license

The grid penalty is lower than normal - usually the penalty for such an offence is five places back on the grid - because Norris had little time to react. However, Norris did receive three penalty points on his license. The Briton started ninth on the grid, but the tumultuous race allowed him to end the weekend in fifth place.

Norris himself thought the penalty was unfair and argued that he had not endangered anyone. According to Norris, not entering the pit lane at that moment was the safest choice.

Meaning of the red flag

Race director Michael Masi doesn't want to know anything about Norris' criticism of the decision and firmly rejects his complaints. "To be honest, from karting to Formula 1, when a red flag is shown the meaning is very clear," quoted PlanetF1 the FIA chief. "Brake off and come to the pit lane immediately. So that even for a six-year-old, driving a kart race for the first time, there is no ambiguity. That is consistent for all track races."

Masi also has little to say about the grid penalty and penalty points imposed by the stewards. "The stewards can obviously impose whatever penalties and demerits they think are appropriate in an incident. They have a guideline to use, but in this case they felt it was appropriate not to apply the guideline, which is a more severe penalty, because of the mitigating circumstances. The penalty points on Norris' license they felt was appropriate because it was a red flag violation."