PALMER: A penalty for Norris looked inevitable – but should Verstappen have been penalised too?

There were two critical moments in the latest chapter of the championship fight at the Circuit of The Americas – and the first one happened right at the start of the race, as the pole-sitter, Lando Norris, slipped down to fourth place, and crucially dropped behind his championship rival Max Verstappen.

Norris got a good launch off the line in Austin, but whilst he covered towards the inside, he still left enough space for Verstappen to dive through, the Dutchman exceptionally late on the brakes. COTA is a particularly difficult circuit to defend on at the start because the first corner is just so wide and if you have a rival as determined as Max, you have to completely shut the inside line, which leaves you compromised with such a vast space to the outside.