Lando Norris described the decision to penalise him for a passing move that saw both him and Max Verstappen go off the track as a "momentum killer" in the race for the Formula One Drivers' Championship.

The penalty given to Norris saw him leapfrogged by Verstappen onto the podium positions, with the McLaren driver dropping from third to fourth.

Following the race, the gap between Norris and Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship was 57 points with five to go and 146 points available.

The United States Grand Prix started controversially, with both Norris and Verstappen jostling for position on the first corner in a way that allowed race winner Charles Leclerc to gain ground on the duo.

While Norris admitted he had "driven like a muppet" at that point, an incident with four laps to go was more pertinent.

A hard fought race but a huge effort by our duo out there today with a good haul of points in the bag! #UnitedStatesGP pic.twitter.com/aCXDuw6Qlv
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 20, 2024

With Norris attempting an overtake, Verstappen defended the inside and both cars ran off the track with Norris emerging in front. The McLaren driver was penalised for overtaking off the track, although he saw it a different way.

"For me, the thing that is incorrect is what Max did, which is defend his position by going off the track and effectively keeping his position," he told BBC Sport.

"He over-defended and made a mistake and gained from that. I had to go off the track.

"It is impossible for people to know whether I could have made it on the track or couldn't, therefore you cannot steward that kind of thing."

Norris thought that the stewards should have waited to review the incident with both drivers after the race had finished.

"It's just a rash decision," he said. "They don’t hear or understand our points, which they should do after the race. They just want to make a decision at the time so they don’t alter points and podiums and things like that.

"But they don’t hear my point or my team's point or Max's point, which I don't think is the most correct thing. But today it's a penalty and there's not a lot I can do apart from accept that.

"It was a great battle. Max defended very well but he ended up on top and congrats to him."

Despite his magnanimous comments, Norris' frustration was palpable as he claimed that race officials were "just guessing."

He added: "I don’t think that's how stewarding should be done".