Lando Norris also hid his trophy from danger when the champagne spraying began on the podium, having broken the one won by Max Verstappen at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2023
Lando Norris was never going to make the same mistake twice. Having held off team-mate Oscar Piastri to win the Hungarian Grand Prix, there was only one thing on his mind from even before he went up the steps to the podium.
These days, because of a sponsorship agreement, the winner of a race signs a bottle of champagne and writes a little message on it. Norris took the opportunity to have a little bit of fun, writing: “Don’t break the trophy!”
It was a message to himself, having got himself in some bother a couple of years ago. He finished second in the 2023 edition of the Budapest race, but was the centre of attention during the podium ceremony when he accidentally knocked over the trophy won by race victor Max Verstappen.
And on Sunday, he made sure he was not going to repeat that error. After the national anthems were played and the trophies were handed out, Norris made a beeline for his porcelain prize and placed it at the side of the podium, before returning to spray some champagne.
It did not go unnoticed by fans. “He moved it so far away!” wrote one on social media, while several others noted that he had stopped to also remove team-mate Piastri’s trophy out of harm’s way before slamming his bottle on the ground to get the fizz flowing.
The unfortunate 2023 incident had been a complete accident and Verstappen took it well, laughing on the podium when he noticed what had happened. But still, Norris was apologetic – perhaps aware of how much work had gone into its creation.
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Trophies handed out at the Hungarian GP are traditionally made out of porcelain and are painstakingly hand-painted by specialist artists. They were created by manufacturer Herend, took around six months to make and cost around £35,000.
“I do want to apologise for it, it was never my intention to do such a thing,” Norris later said. “I know how much it means to the Hungarians and it is part of their culture and so forth. Of course, I want to enjoy my time but it was never my intention to do such a thing.
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“I did apologise to Max, I did make a couple of jokes about it which maybe I should not have. I do feel bad, if he did it to my trophy I would feel annoyed. I do apologise for it, to the people who put the time and effort into making it, I really did not mean for it to happen and I will be a lot more careful next time.”
And he lived up to his word on Sunday, going the extra mile to make sure there would be no more shattered porcelain littering the podium this time.
