Max Verstappen has accused Lando Norris of making “a weird move” to take both drivers out of contention for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix win.
Having built a seven-second lead over Norris ahead of their second pit stops on Lap 54, Verstappen suffered a poor stop due to Red Bull struggling with a rear-left tyre change due to a wheel-nut issue.
The issue consequently meant that Norris upon exiting the pit lane had trimmed his deficit to 2.954s and had new medium tyres on unlike Verstappen – who was on used mediums, which allowed the Brit to reel him in.
Verstappen consequently went defensive and forced Norris wide repeatedly beyond track limits on more than three occasions to deliberately force a five-second time penalty for the McLaren driver, which ultimately came after the pair collided on Lap 64.
The 26 year-old Dutchman led into the corner whilst Norris took the outside line to make the overtake for the lead, only for Verstappen to move under braking into the side of his McLaren to give them both punctures.
Verstappen recovered to finish fifth amidst a pit stop and ten-second post-race time penalty which didn’t see his classified position change, but Norris’ race ended in the pit-lane due to the severity of the damage.
Speaking to media post-race, Verstappen explained the incident from his perspective and bizarrely blamed the hot weather for their punctures upon contact, yet accused Norris of mounting “a weird move” amidst the shape of the corner.
“We were battling today and Lando tried to move around the outside, and then we touched with the rear tyres. It was very hot so immediately we had a puncture.”
“From my side it seemed like a weird move but we obviously need to review this and of course we will talk about it. The shape of the corner also provides these kinds of issues sometimes and it is never nice to come together.”
Norris meanwhile was mature about the incident as he told McLaren.com that he had aimed to avoid contact.
“I made a number of attempts to go for the win, trying to avoid collisions, and frustratingly I got crashed into by Max, which ended my day early. There was nothing more I could do.”
McLaren’s Team Principal, Andrea Stella added that Verstappen’s antics had only fired his team up for their home race at Silverstone next week and into the second half of the season.
“We will make sure we use this frustration to be even more determined and motivated to make our strengths even stronger and be ready for the second part of the season, which has all the conditions to be quite exciting for the papaya colours.”
Unfortunately for Max this is his “Jos legacy” when as a junior driver he got a belting from his father whenever he didn’t win, the sport has to be equally tough with a three strike championship disqualification of which this should be strike one!