Norris made it easy for Verstappen: "Showed a surprising lack of fighting spirit"

Jolyon Palmer saw Lando Norris waving the white flag in his battle with Max Verstappen last Sunday. The McLaren driver seemed to have a chance to engage in a fight with the mighty Red Bull Racing, but the British driver decided, like his teammate Oscar Piastri, to just surrender. Palmer understands Norris' decision, as McLaren probably didn't know prior to the race if they had a good race pace.

After Verstappen had a poor start, Norris took over the lead in the race, with Piastri also in close proximity. However, Norris quickly gave up the position. "As the pressure mounted, Lando waved the white flag, and Max made an easy overtake to regain the lead," Palmer writes in his analysis on Formula1.com. "On one hand, this showed a surprising lack of fighting spirit from someone who was leading his home race, on a day when McLaren had the pace to keep up with the championship leader."

Palmer understands choice of the McLaren drivers

Neither Norris nor Piastri seemed eager to fight against Verstappen. Palmer, to some extent, understands the decision of the McLaren drivers. "Although it's frustrating not to be able to battle against the mighty Red Bull, it's the pragmatic approach that makes sense at the moment. They started the day without really knowing what the race pace would be like in their updated car, and they would have been very concerned about the threat of a Ferrari or Mercedes attack from behind."

The former Renault driver believes that Norris would have put himself and his teammate in trouble if he had engaged in a fight with Verstappen. He most likely would have lost the battle, and then the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers would have joined in. "As it turned out, the race pace of Ferrari and Mercedes was reasonably comparable to that of McLaren, but the crucial aspect for the British team was to break away early from Leclerc's DRS range," Palmer said.