In the fight for victory at the Austrian GP, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris clashed at the end of the race and handed the win to George Russell. The McLaren driver was very angry with the world champion, who responded.
“He ruined my race, destroyed my car”: Briton Lando Norris (McLaren), forced to retire from the Austrian GP on Sunday after a collision with Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who ended up fifth, had harsh words for the Dutchman, who defended himself. “I have a lot of respect for Max and what he can achieve (…) but there are times when I think he maybe goes a little too far and I feel like today is a bit of a case,” said the Briton.
“I expect a tough fight against Max. I expect aggression, I expect us to push the envelope, but all three times he did things that could easily cause an incident. And in a way, it’s a little thoughtless (…) I expected a tough, fair and respectful fight, and I don’t feel like that’s what he gave me,” he fumed.
>> Relive the Austrian GP and George Russell’s victory
Norris, who had been several seconds behind Verstappen for the first two-thirds of the race, had come back into the wheels of the reigning triple world champion thanks to a poor pit stop by the Red Bull twenty laps from the finish.
“Both annoyed”
The two men then engaged in a merciless duel for around ten minutes, until the unfortunate epilogue which occurred on the 64th of the 71 laps of the race: Norris attempted to overtake from the outside and Verstappen shifted slightly, precipitating a collision between the two cars which resulted in a puncture for each of the protagonists.
“For me, it was not a movement on braking, Verstappen justified himself. I saw it coming of course, so I defended the inside a little. And then when braking, we touched each other with the rear tires and we both had flats, which is obviously something you don’t want to happen.” If the Dutchman, found responsible for the accident and who received an anecdotal penalty of ten seconds, was able to leave after changing tires, the Briton was not able to leave the pits because his front wing was also damaged.
“The 10 seconds seemed a little harsh to me because I didn’t have the impression that there was anything very aggressive in this movement. We can say that we are limiting the damage, of course, this is not what we want, I think, for both of us. Lando is not the only one who is annoyed, I am too,” he concluded. By finishing fifth, “Mad Max”, winner of the sprint on Saturday ahead of… Norris, scored 10 points which allowed him to widen the gap at the top of the championship over the McLaren driver, now relegated to 81 lengths.
