Verstappen's defending tactics need addressing - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton believes Max Verstappen's approach to defending needs to be addressed by the FIA amid a focus on driving standard guidelines.

Verstappen overtook Lando Norris at the start of the United States Grand Prix with a move up the inside that led to both cars running off track at the exit of the corner, and then had to defend from the McLaren later on at Turn 12, again resulting in both cars going off.

On the second occasion, Norris rejoined ahead after having moved slightly in front of the Red Bull before the braking zone, but received a five-second time penalty because Verstappen had braked late enough to be ahead at the apex despite not making the corner. The current guidelines prioritize the first car to reach the apex over making the corner itself, and Hamilton believes that needs to be revisited.

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“It’s always been a gray area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton said. “I mean, they probably need to make some adjustments for sure.

“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which year it is. As a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example. I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.

“But I experienced it many times with Max. You shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”

As the driver currently competing against Verstappen for a championship, Norris said Verstappen is able to take further advantage of the fact that he holds a comfortable lead.

“Clearly Max is very good at what he does, and is probably the best in the world at what he does,” Norris said. “So when I'm going up against the best in the world, it's not going to be an easy thing to do. And he's been racing in this position for longer than I have.

“I’m definitely not doing a perfect job, but I'm not doing a bad job. I'm still staying there, I'm avoiding collisions, which a lot of things that we've done could have easily been and turned into worse things, like bigger crashes and stuff. And I've avoided them and stayed in races which easily could have ended earlier than they have.

“There's certain things I don't agree with. But I still want to be racing -- I don't want there to be rules for absolutely everything. I just believe the slight way of how I got a penalty last weekend, and the consequence of how that happened, I didn't agree with, and that's the only thing I think that needs to be changed.

“But it's clear what his intentions are. It's a difficult route for me to get around, getting caught up in collisions and things like Turn 1 easily could have been, or Turn 12 easily could have been. So he's in a much more powerful position than I am, it's up to me and the team to try and overcome that.”

McLaren has lodged a petition for a right of review of the penalty Norris was given in Austin, with a hearing to take place on Friday afternoon.