SUZUKA, Japan -- Lando Norris said Max Verstappen was entitled not to leave space in the one moment at the Japanese Grand Prix that the two drivers went wheel-to-wheel for the lead.
After starting from pole position, Verstappen led Norris in the opening stint of the race before both drivers pitted on Lap 21.
The fast work of the McLaren pit crew saw Norris exit the pit lane with his front wheels alongside the Red Bull, but he ran out of room as they rejoined the race track and bounced across the grass.
Although both drivers blamed the other over team radio, after the race Norris said there was no issue with the way Verstappen positioned his car.
"It was racing," Norris said. "Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space -- in a good way, in a racing way.
"They deserved it this weekend. They are quick, they have been catching up and as a team we didn't have enough this weekend so we need to work hard."
When Verstappen was asked about the incident, he made a joke about it.
"I think the grass was not really well cut on the right-hand side," the Red Bull driver said. "So I think, yeah, Lando saw that as well."
Norris added: "I wasn't even trying to race Max. I was just trying to cut the grass, like you said! So I didn't even know he was there, actually."
The stewards noted the incident but opted not to investigate."
By pitting on the same lap as Verstappen, McLaren conceded the possibility of beating the Red Bull driver using tyre strategy. An opportunity to pit a lap earlier may have provided the possibility of an undercut, but McLaren chose to pit Norris' teammate Oscar Piastri on that lap to defend from cars behind that had pitted earlier.
Another option would have been to leave Norris out longer than Verstappen to gain the advantage of fresher tyres in the second half of the race, but again the team was concerned about losing position.
"Hindsight is a wonderful thing," Norris said. "I think we could have gone longer [than Verstappen]. Could I have tried going earlier? Yes. But then you're at risk of safety cars and other things.
"So it's easy to say, yeah, you should have done that or you should have done that. But if I boxed three laps earlier or two laps earlier and a safety comes out, then we look stupid.
"So you can't win them all. And, you know, we take it on the chin. I think we've got areas to work on.
"High speed [corners], we're very, very strong. And I think definitely the strongest car out there, but slow speed, we're quite a chunk off of the Red Bull.
"And that's where we lost yesterday in qualifying. So we lost again consistently in the race today. A lot of areas we have to try to work on."