Max Verstappen has denied Lando Norris’ claim that he was moving under braking prior to the clash that ruined both drivers’ races in Formula 1’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Verstappen appeared to be cruising towards a sixth win at the Red Bull Ring as he opened up a sizeable eight-second advantage over Norris across the opening stint.
However, the Dutchman began to struggle on his rubber as his second stint came to an end and a 6.5-second stop from Red Bull placed the McLaren right on his tail.
Norris sized up the Red Bull on several occasions at Turn 3 and Turn 4, but he was unable to complete a move and complained that Verstappen was moving to block.
The race leaders would come to blows on Lap 64 when Verstappen squeezed Norris to the outside and inevitable contact saw both drivers incur damaging punctures.
Norris was incensed with his rival’s actions and claimed that his racing overstepped the limits, but Verstappen is adamant that he did nothing wrong behind the wheel.
“For me it was not moving under braking because every time I moved I was not braking already, of course from the outside it looks like that,” Verstappen said.
“But I think I know fairly well what to do in these kinds of scenarios and 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. 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 tyres and we both get a puncture from it, which of course is something you don’t want to happen.”
The stewards, though, determined that Verstappen was to blame and slapped him with a 10-second time penalty – a decision which the Dutchman did not agree with.
“I’ll look back at it but 10s seems a bit severe for me, I didn’t feel like it was anything kind of aggressive, going on in that move,” he assessed.
But while he thinks his racing was tolerable, Verstappen repeated that he took issue with the lunges Norris made into Turn 3 which almost resulted in an earlier blow.
“But 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,” he added.
“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 of course, with the contact we had super unfortunate.”
Verstappen admitted it wasn’t the “right time” to discuss the collision with Norris, but he doesn’t believe that this flashpoint will cause their relationship to deteriorate.
Asked whether he reckons it would damage their friendship, Verstappen replied: “It shouldn’t be, we’re all racing drivers, of course we don’t want to crash with each other.”
Despite having to make a subsequent pit stop and his time drop, Verstappen still managed to come home in fifth place and extend his championship lead over Norris.
“You can say damage limitation, “but it’s not what you want to happen for both of us, we are both annoyed, it is not only that Lando is annoyed, I am annoyed,” he said.
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