Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were good friends prior to Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix, but that relationship has taken a huge hit after their clash which cost them both the chance of victory
Lando Norris feels “let down” by Max Verstappen over their collision which changed the course of the Austrian Grand Prix.
And the McLaren racer said he will need to see how his rival reacts to the incident before deciding whether they can remain friends. Norris was clearly frustrated over the clash, which came after several laps of furious fighting between them over the lead of the race.
Norris was breathing down the neck of Verstappen and had tried several times to overtake a turn three. The Briton felt the Red Bull racer was moving under braking and complained several times over the radio, before they touched on the final attempt.
Both cars picked up punctures and had to limp back to the pit lane. Norris retired the car while Verstappen could only come back out in fifth, while George Russell inherited the victory – only his second F1 win.
Reacting to the dramatic ending, Norris said: “I’m disappointed, nothing more than that, honestly. I was looking forward to a strong, fair battle, but I wouldn’t say that’s what it was in the end. It was a tough one to take. It was a mistake-free race from my side and I felt like I did a good job, but I got taken out of the race.
“There’s a rule, you’re not allowed to react to the other driver [under braking]. That’s what he did, three times out of three. Two times I managed to avoid it, not lock up and run into him, and the third time he just ran into me. He ruined his own race just as he ruined mine, and there was nothing more I could do. I did my best and it was good enough, but it got ruined, not my own fault.
“If the rules aren’t followed, there’s nothing I can do about that. I just have to do my job which is to go out and drive fast, to do what I was doing today which was easily good enough for the win. From my side, I’ll just carry on doing what I’m doing. I’m doing a good job. I got let down today.
“It depends what he says. If he says he did nothing wrong, I’ll lose a lot of respect for that. He was being a bit stupid and running into me and just being a bit reckless. It’s still a tough one to take, while fighting for the win while trying to be fair from my side, and he just wasn’t.”
Verstappen, who got a 10-second penalty for causing the collision, defended his racing and denied the accusation that he was moving under braking. He said: “From the outside, it’s hard to see where I brake. In the past, that has always been a bit of a complaint, but now I always move my wheel before I brake and then brake in a straight line.
“That’s always easy to say from the outside, that I was moving under braking, but I think the guy in the car knows best what he’s doing. Everyone can have their own opinion, but I’m the one driving and in control. From the outside it’s easy to judge and comment, but whatever.
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“I felt like sometimes he divebombed, he’s so late on the brakes that one time he went straight on and one time I had to go around the sausage kerb, otherwise we would have touched as well. I think it’s also the shape of the corner which provides these kinds of issues sometimes. It is what it is. It’s never nice.
“I need to look back at why and how we touched and of course we’ll talk about it. It’s just unfortunate that it happened. This incident is just one thing, if you look at the race we did so many things wrong, from the strategy to really bad pit stops. You put yourselves in this position and that’s the worst thing about it. We created it for ourselves.”
Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz also inherited podium finishes as a result of that incident. And Lewis Hamilton finished fourth ahead of Verstappen, who extended his lead over Norris in the championship as a result.
