Max Verstappen says his defensive moves against Lando Norris at the closing stages of the Austrian GP were undeserving of the “severe” 10-second time penalty that he got for causing a collision with the McLaren driver on lap 64.
Verstappen had led the early and middle stages of the race comfortably, but a slow final pit stop for the Dutchman brought Norris right into the fight, which ultimately ended after they would eventually collide one lap later.
Speaking to the media after the race in Spielberg, Verstappen insisted his moves weren’t overly aggressive and said he wasn’t moving his car under braking zones like Norris suggested over the radio, and criticised some of Norris’ overly optimistic “divebombs” saying that’s not the way to race fairly:
“10 seconds seemed a bit severe for me at that point,” said Verstappen. “Because I didn’t feel like it was super – like anything kind of aggressive – going on in that movement.
“For me, it was not moving under braking, because every time that I moved, I was not braking already.
“Of course from the outside, it always looks like that, but I think I know fairly well what to do in this kind of scenarios.
“Also a few of those are really late divebombs [from Norris], so it’s a bit of just sending it up the inside and just hope that the other guy steers out of it.
“It’s not always how you race, but I think it’s just the corner here that lends to that as well. I’ve been in the other position as well where you go for it, and it’s just the shape of the corner.”
Verstappen admitted he “didn’t expect” Norris to launch his car down the outside on the way he did on lap 64, and labelled the resulting contact as “super unfortunate”, whilst still strongly denying making any movements in the barking zone:
“I think the move that we got together was something that I didn’t expect. I saw him coming of course, so I defended a little bit the inside.
“And then under braking we touched with the rear tyres and we both get a puncture from it, which of course is something you don’t want to happen.
“That’s what I meant with the dive-bombing,” he said. “It’s just standing it up late and just hoping that the other guy steers out of it and you make the corner, which wasn’t the case.
“Of course, you can say moving on the braking for me, which wasn’t the case because I didn’t brake when I moved.
“But it’s also a bit like just 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.
“And I think today that didn’t work out. But then of course, like I said before, with the contact that we have, it’s super unfortunate.”
Norris and Verstappen are known for having a friendly relationship that goes beyond the race tracks, but questions have arisen if that will still be the case after their dramatic collision in Austria. The Dutchman says the pair will “talk about” the incident in the coming days:
“We’ll talk about it, but not now,” Verstappen explained. “It’s not the right time. But you know, we’re racing drivers.
“Lando and I, we have a little age gap [two years] and that’s why we never really raced against each other in lower categories compared to some other drivers here.
“But yeah, we’ll move on from here then.”
The reigning three-time world champion still finished P5 despite the penalty, and scored an extra point for the fastest lap of the race, increasing his championship lead by 11 points heading into the British GP next week.
