Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin coasted to a halt at Turn 20 with brake failure on lap 13 of the 13 September race. By the time the virtual safety car was called, Lando Norris had already cleared the pit entry line, his six-second lead evaporating with every metre he carried the McLaren past the point where a cheap tyre change could have saved him.

McLaren’s step-by-step reconstruction put the timing gap at roughly two seconds. That was the entire margin between a routine win and a race Norris finished third in, behind Max Verstappen and race winner Kimi Antonelli, who used the neutralisation window to swap tyres and vault to the front.

Antonelli, Verstappen and George Russell all pitted under the VSC. Norris was called in a lap later at green-flag pace, and a slow front-right change turned an already bad stop into a seven-second one. He estimated he lost about 20 seconds of race time.

Coulthard: ‘that can be tidied up’

Speaking on the Up To Speed podcast that he co-hosts with former F1 TV presenter Will Buxton on Motorsport.com, David Coulthard said the delay between an incident and a call from race control is the piece of the process that needs work.

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“One thing I would question again is the time it takes between an incident and either a virtual, a safety or a red flag. I think that can be tidied up,” the Scot said.

“There’s room for improvement.”

He argued that the clear-cut cases, comparing them to the crash at Monza, should be resolved as fast as a yellow flag is waved trackside.

Buxton, who acknowledged the timing issue, pushed back on the idea that any neutralisation can be truly fair.

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“Someone’s going to get screwed, and someone is going to come up smelling of roses.”

Norris wants the VSC rule itself rewritten

Norris has called for a rule change, telling Sky Sports that drivers have raised the issue in briefings and want the VSC held out for a full lap so no leader is punished for being at the wrong point on the track.

“I was just unlucky. I was the only one on the whole grid to not get a pit stop and lost 20 seconds.”

“A race should be won by the guy who can put in the best performance. It’s just unfair.”

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“I think everyone wants the same thing, and that’s just fairness for everyone.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown, quoted in the same Sky Sports report, said the team had the race won.

“They were cruel today twice. Lando was gone. That was our race by 20 or 25 seconds.”

The title math the VSC just moved

Antonelli’s eighth win of the season took him to 292 points and stretched his lead over Mercedes team-mate Russell to 81, according to the post-race standings. Lewis Hamilton is third for Ferrari, and Norris is now within five points of him after the Madring result.

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The next round is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on the weekend of 26 September, after a two-week break.

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