“Max was unfair, he ruined my race.” McLaren driver Lando Norris attacks Max Verstappen head-on, held responsible for the accident that occurred on lap 64 in the Austrian GP, when both drivers were fighting for the victory. Will this be the end of your friendship? “It depends on what Max says, if he admits he was stupid we’ll see, if he says he didn’t do anything we’ll have problems,” adds Norris. The McLaren driver tried to overtake the Red Bull on the outside. Verstappen, in difficulty, widened his trajectory without any criteria, triggering the contact.
“I’m disappointed, I had a good race, I expected a fair battle. I don’t think it was like that. It’s hard to accept. It was a race without mistakes on my part. Let’s now look at the next race. There is a rule, you don’t react and you don’t change the trajectory of those behind you, in the end I crashed into him, he closed me down and ruined my race. I did my best and it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t really my fault. I tried to be correct and he wasn’t. I’m just sorry for my team”, concludes Norris.
And Verstappen? The world champion proposes an alternative version of the incident. “Norris jumped in late and at one point lost control. I have been in that situation many times, I was not so aggressive in the car, in the end we touched in an embarrassing way. Did I make the mistake? I have to watch the accident again, it was bizarre”, he tells Sky Sport. “It was a race in which we made some bad pit stops”, adds the world champion and championship leader.
