Lando Norris and Sergio Perez were each handed penalties at the Austrian Grand Prix with Michael Masi stating both drivers failed to leave a car's width to the edge of the track for their rivals. The McLaren driver was handed a five-second penalty for his first lap incident with Perez, one that Christian Horner even thought was harsh . As for Checo, he received two penalties later in the race while battling with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. In the end, the stewards felt the incidents were linked by a common thread. "The stewards had a look at all three," Masi told RacingNews365.com and other members of the media. "In the first case in Sergio's one with Lando, he was wholly alongside Lando and therefore there is an onus to leave a car's width to the edge of the track. "The same in the reverse with Checo and Charles at the exit of Turn 4, and then Checo and Charles again at the exit of Turn 6. Their view was, and obviously I don't sit in the stewards room to deliberate, but their view was in all three circumstances that a car's width should have been left to the edge of the track because the two cars were alongside each other." Asked what the difference was between these incidents and the one between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton at the first corner of Imola, Masi said the latter was treated differently because it occurred on Lap 1. "I think first corner, Lap 1, and you have to remember this from a team's perspective as well, that all Lap 1 incidents are treated in a more lenient manner and that has been the case for a number of years," Masi added. "It's obviously very difficult to try and compare, I know everyone likes to group everything, but it's very difficult to compare two completely different corners."
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