Max Verstappen says he will talk to Lando Norris after the dust has settled from the Austrian Grand Prix, as he disagrees that he was moving under braking defending against the McLaren.
Norris caught Verstappen in the final stint of the race after a slow pit stop for the Red Bull driver, and attempted on multiple occasions to try and pass at Turn 3. Making an attempt on the inside from a long way back, Norris complained that Verstappen moved under braking in response to him three times, before the pair touched when Norris was trying on the outside and both picked up punctures.
“For me it was not moving under braking because every time I moved I was not braking already,” Verstappen said. “Of course from the outside it looks like that, but I think I know fairly well what to do in these kinds of scenarios
“A few of those were really late divebombs, so it’s a bit of a ‘just send them up the inside and hope that the other guy steers out of it,’ which is not always how you race. But I think the corner here lends to that as well — I’ve been in the other position where you go for it and it’s just the shape of the corner.
“The move we got together was something I didn’t expect because I saw him coming, defend a little bit the inside, then under braking we touch the rear tires and we both get a puncture from it, which of course is something you don’t want to happen.
“We’ll talk about it; not now, it’s not the right time, but we’re racing drivers. Of course Lando and I have a little age gap which is why we never really raced together in lower categories like some other drivers here, but we’ll move on.”
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Verstappen was handed a 10s time penalty for the collision that led to damage that ultimately demoted him to fifth and forced Norris to retire, and while the Red Bull driver felt that was harsh, he was more focused on Norris’ earlier attempts to pass when he was on the verge of receiving a penalty for exceeding track limits.
“That’s what I meant with the divebombing — just sending it up late and hoping the other guy stays out of it and you make the corner, which wasn’t the case.
“Of course moving under braking for me wasn’t the case as I literally didn’t brake when I moved, but it’s also a bit sending it up the inside from far, which of course looks good, I like it as well, but sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. Today that didn’t work out. Then, like I said before, with the contact we had — super unfortunate.”
The championship leader ended up extending his advantage by 10 points courtesy of his fifth place, but he was left frustrated by the overall performance from Red Bull having seen an 8s lead mid-race disappear.
“I think the first stint was quite good, then at the end of that first stint I caught quite a bit of traffic. We should have boxed for me, personally, because I just gave up free lap time. We basically did a lot of things wrong today, I think starting with strategy.
“The pit stops were a disaster. The first one was really bad, the second one even more of a disaster, and then you give free lap time — 6s over those two pit stops.
“[Of course, then] it’s a race again and that’s why we put ourselves in that position. Unfortunate…for an accident to happen between us, which you never want to happen, but we did everything wrong that we could have done today.”