Alonso was the subject of discussion after receiving a 20-second penalty for “potentially dangerous driving” after he slowed on the straight and then accelerated again on the final lap of the race in Australia, actions that led to Russell crashing heavily.
The Aston Martin driver said he was “a little surprised by the penalty”, adding: “It will not change much on how we drive. There is no obligation to drive 57 laps in the same way.”
Russell said he felt a penalty was the correct decision.
“If it were not to have been penalised,” he said, “it would have really opened a can of worms for the rest of the season – and in junior categories – of saying, you know, are you allowed to brake in a straight? Are you allowed to slow down, change gear, accelerate, do something semi-erratic?
“I don’t take anything personally with what happened with Fernando. And it probably had bigger consequences than it should have.”
But Lando Norris disagreed, saying penalising Alonso was the wrong decision.
“What Fernando did was odd, so extreme, but don’t think it’s even close to being regarded as a brake test,” the McLaren driver said.
“Should it be a penalty? No. George had time to see what was going on. This was not a ‘brake test’. This was just trying to play very smart, Fernando being Fernando, and [Russell] kind of being caught out by it.
“It was not aggressive. It was not one metre in front of a car stopping. [It was] 100m ahead, and the approaching speed caught George off.
“George didn’t have to do anything other than brake five metres earlier and nothing would have happened. I will have many questions ready for the drivers’ briefing.”
Verstappen said he, too, would discuss the situation in the drivers’ briefing, which takes place after practice on Friday.
2024-04-04 08:45:33
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