"Unlucky" Lando Norris calls for a change to the VSC rules.

Race-winner Kimi Antonelli and second-placed Max Verstappen were the first to admit that the Briton had been "unlucky", not that it made any difference to the McLaren driver who had seen his hopes of a victory disappear with two cruel twists of fate.

Following a tremendous start, the 2025 world champion was setting a blistering pace, pulling away from Verstappen and then Antonelli at a rate of knots, when the VSC was deployed after Lance Stroll stopped on track.

Unfortunately, the deployment came just as Norris passed the pitlane entrance, and while Antonelli, Verstappen, Russell and others were quick to take advantage, the McLaren driver had to continue for another lap, by which time the VSC had been withdrawn and his rivals were racing again.

To compound the Briton's maddening Madring, it was a slow pit stop and he rejoined the race in fifth almost 5s down on George Russell.

As he took the flag in third, Norris told his team: "We were too quick! That's all it was.

"Very unlucky today guys," he added, "we deserved to win quite easily. Big thank you. I didn't think we should have had a chance here, we should have won.

"Well done guys, keep it going, and I'll keep delivering. We can still win plenty of races this year."

Understandably disappointed, Norris was consoled by both Antonelli and Verstappen, and, other than the cool down room official who questioned his choice of post-race beverage, the 2025 world champion saved his frustration for the VSC rules.

Asked if there was anything his team could have done, he replied: "I'm past the pit lane, so I need to speak to the team, but it's not a guessing game, you know.

"I was unlucky," he continued, "I was the only one on the whole grid that doesn't get a pit stop. So I lose 20 seconds on the whole grid.

"This is out of my control, it's out of their control, it's a rule that shouldn't define a race.

"A race should be won by the guy who can put in the best performance, who maybe takes a risk by going long in a pit stop, long in a stint, and maybe you get a Safety Car later on and things can help, because you know that's one of the big factors.

"But for everyone to get a Safety Car, a VSC pit loss, that means you get nothing. It's just... it's unfair, but it's happened in the past, others have won from it, I've probably won it from it in the past.

"It's just... I don't think many people have lost a race (so obviously) over it. It's frustrating, I don't feel like it's the way you should lose.

"We've spoken about it in the past in the drivers' briefing, saying they should leave it out, at least for a lap, so it's equal for everyone.

"Today I was the only one that lost out, and I lost out about 20 seconds of race time, and that's not how it should be."

"Lando was gone," agreed Zak Brown, "the team did a great job and the VSC came out a couple seconds after we went by and went away a couple seconds before we could pit.

"There's nothing we could have done," he sighed. "It was great to hear Lando's radio message to 'shrug it off'.

"That was our race by 20 or 25 seconds," he insisted. "He was dominant, he was gone. Managing, great tyre wear, in a league of his own."

Asked if the team could have pitted its driver, pre-emptively, as soon as Stroll was seen to top, Andrea Stella said: "In hindsight, it would have been a good idea. But we will have to review with my engineers to see whether it was kind of obvious that it would end up in a virtual safety car.

"Here, the problem is that you need to be extremely careful because it is 27 seconds if you don't pit under a virtual safety car. So if you get it wrong it will be extremely penalising: from the lead, you pit unnecessarily and now you have lost the victory.

"So, I think a good rule is to respond to what is a fact, to what is the real condition of the circuit. But we will definitely take a look as to whether in these conditions it was just simply obvious that it would end up in a virtual safety car."

Defending the actual stop, the Italian said: "In fairness and for completeness, we had a seven second pit stop, so there's definitely takeaways even when it comes to our operations.

"It would have not made a difference for the final result, because probably Lando would have pitted anyhow behind Russell and even if not, it would have not been possible to overtake Verstappen and Antonelli. So definitely, we take note that there's a lot of work to do in our operation, and it's not the first time that we have a slow stop. But in terms of the race itself, it didn't make a difference."

Of course, another option would have been not to pit Norris.

"We considered staying out," Stella admitted, "but you have to you have to accept the fact that now you are on relatively used medium tyres and the people behind you will be a new hard, so you're never going to open a gap on people with a new hard.

"Therefore we kind of needed to accept that that was what we should have done, and the fact that it was incredibly unfortunate.

"Sometimes we talk about being unlucky. I think at times that being unlucky is used for too many applications but, in this case, it's almost a mathematical definition of being unlucky."

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