Jenson Button and Christian Horner had a heated debate about the overtaking controversy between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc may have emerged victorious at the United States Grand Prix, but all people were talking about in Austin, Texas, was the decision to penalise Norris for his overtake on the Red Bull man with five laps to go. The McLaren ace, who is now trailing the Dutchman by 57 points with five races to go, found himself driving off the track when he tried to pass Verstappen.
In his attempts to close off the inside, the reigning world champion also veered off the track when he tried to defend his position. Despite both drivers drifting astray, Norris was the one who was ordered to give way and allow Verstappen to pass.
Button thought the battle was six of one way and half a dozen of the other and thought the decision to punish Norris was harsh. The 2009 world champion was so animated, he confronted a rather smug looking Horner about the matter.
Horner was confronted by Sky Sports with the footage of the incident. As he watched Norris and Verstappen both drift off the track, he said: “It was hard racing between them. They’ve gone off the circuit and Lando passed off the circuit – the rules are very, very clear.
“Max was obviously straight on the radio and the race director was pretty clear. You can see that he went out of track and clearly off the circuit.”
Button fired back almost instantaneously when he said: “Well, both guys went off the circuit” to which Horner curtly replied: “Well, you can’t overtake”. A visibly frustrated Button then said: “This is the thing. It’s frustrating for us guys watching it, because Lando overtook him off the track, but then, Max went off the track and it’s all about who was in front at the Apex and Max was in front.
“But, is that because he let off the break at the apex or he ran them both off the track? It seems your driver is very good at understanding the regulations and it’s more of the problem that we need better regulation of what is okay and what isn’t.
“We saw it with many fights on the track at that corner. Guys overtaking, putting it down the inside and then just driving the other guy off the track. In Monaco they wouldn’t do that.
“We need a rule that you cannot push another car completely off the track and then I think we would have some better racing and we wouldn’t have to keep talking about this.”
Horner diverted the conversation back to the rule book, saying: “I can understand the frustration, but at the end of the day, the rules are the rules. The drivers know that and they’re driving accordingly.
“Max was acutely aware that as soon as Lando went over that white line, off track and overtook, he knew that’s illegal. He was straight on the radio.
“I think before that there was some track limits as well, so there was a whole bunch of things going on at that point in time.”
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