Verstappen ‘got what he had coming’ and ‘knows he was over the limit’

Lando Norris believes his championship rival Max Verstappen knows he went too far with his defensive moves during yesterday’s Mexican Grand Prix.

Verstappen was penalised twice for a pair of incidents with Norris on lap 10 of the race. Norris said his rival’s tactics showed he is not trying to win races, but delay him as much as possible.

“I go into every race expecting a tough battle with Max,” said Norris, who cut his rival’s championship lead to 47 points yesterday. “It’s clear that it doesn’t matter if he wins or second, his only job is to beat me in the race, and he’ll sacrifice himself to do that, like he did today.”

Norris said his rival’s driving yesterday went beyond hard racing and his two 10-second time penalties were justified. “I want to have good battles with him,” he said. “I want to have those tough battles, like I’ve seen him have plenty of times. But fair ones.

“It’s always going to be on the line. It’s always going to be tough with Max. He’s never going to make anyone’s life easy, especially mine at this point of the year. But I think today was just… It was not fair, clean racing. And therefore, I think he got what he had coming to him.”

Verstappen responded to Norris’ attempt to pass him around the outside of turn four by forcing him off the track. At turn seven he lunged up the inside of the McLaren, pushing both of them off the track in a 155kph corner with little run-off. Both drivers lost a position to Charles Leclerc at that point, which it took Norris until the end of the race to recover.

Norris said Verstappen’s moves forced him to take evasive action. “Today I felt like I just had to avoid collisions and that’s not what you feel like you want to do in a race,” he said.

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“He’s in a very powerful position in the championship. He’s a long way ahead. He has nothing to lose. People can say it’s the other way around, like he’s got everything to lose and it’s all for me. But it’s not the case.”

He believes Verstappen knew his moves were not allowed under the rules but was willing to take the risk given the championship situation. “He knows how to drive,” said Norris. “And I’m sure he knows that today was probably a bit over the limit.”

It was the second race in a row where the pair have clashed controversially. In Austin Norris received a five-second time penalty for overtaking Verstappen off the track, as the Red Bull driver also left the circuit as he tried to keep his rival behind.

Norris said the fight between the pair in Mexico “was another level in both of those cases.”

“I was ahead of Max in the braking zone, past the apex. I am avoiding crashing today. This is the difference.

“I can’t speak for him, and maybe he’ll say something different. But I think today was a step too far from both of those, and it was clear that the stewards agreed with that.

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“So I don’t see it as a win or anything like this, but it’s more that I hope Max acknowledges that he took it a step too far.”

Verstappen responded to criticism of his defensive driving in Austin by insisting he obeys the rules. However Norris pointed out that wasn’t the case when Verstappen re-passed at turn seven following the incident at turn four.

“I didn’t need to let Max through,” he said. “I was ahead at the apex of four, I had to avoid him crashing into me.

“Then [turn] seven was the same thing again. The thing is, what I didn’t understand, like what didn’t come earlier, was he overtook off the track.

“It was also overly aggressive and those types of things, but he overtook off the track. I don’t know what the wording of the penalties are and those types of things, but he says he drives to the rules. That was his main thing he said after last weekend, and today he overtook by going forwards off the track.

“We’ll see. Max will be back next weekend and I expect just more tough battles.”

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