McLaren‘s Lando Norris cheekily admits he enjoys watching Formula 1 rivals Max Verstappen and George Russell amid their spiralling confrontation.
The squabble between Verstappen and Russell stems from the former impeding the latter during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, whereby the Dutchman received a one-place grid drop.
Verstappen has doubled down on comments he made in Qatar, saying he has “lost all respect” for Russell, meanwhile, the Mercedes driver has claimed his Red Bull rival threatened to crash into him in Qatar.
Moreover, Russell said “To question somebody’s integrity as a person, while saying comments like that the day before, I find it very ironic, and I’m not going to sit here and accept it.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen has ‘no regrets’ criticising George Russell’s ‘unacceptable’ behaviour in Qatar
Norris told select media including Motorsport Week on Thursday ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP that “I don’t know the details,” before pausing to clarify “actually I do know a lot of the details of what was said and what happened.”
This is unsurprising given Norris is close to both parties involved but he said the confrontation is “for them to squabble about and argue about.
“You have the two sides,” Norris added.
“You have the side of we’re paid to come here and to race and to perform well for our team In some ways, no matter what cost, you want to win and you want to give yourself the best opportunity.
“For George, that was by saying probably what he said and doing what he said.
“At times, you know, I think between drivers you have that amount of respect when something happens. You’re like, that’s racing or that’s just what happens sometimes and you don’t want either of them to get a penalty because it’s racing.
“It’s just a situation where no one should really get a penalty.
“Mercedes are not fighting for a championship or something like that. They’re kind of clinging on to a bit more than what Max is.
“So they’re going to do at what at all costs it takes to try and get a pole or try and get a win.
“So maybe he’s paid the price a little bit of that from an amount of respect for Max.
“Everyone does things their own way. Some fight harder for things, some fight less. But I enjoy watching them argue like they do.”
Norris takes no issue with Verstappen campaigning for his yellow flag penalty in Qatar
Norris was issued a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for failing to observe double-waved yellow flags in the Qatar GP.
This was observed by Verstappen, who campaigned with his race engineer to ensure Norris was protested for the breach.
Asked if he took issue with the Dutchman’s actions, Norris revealed there was no ill feeling as he had clearly broken the rules.
“To be honest, I think every driver on the grid would do the same as what Max did,” Norris explained.
“That’s racing, you know, there’s the rules. Max could tell I didn’t obey the rules.
“I could have done, I still could have lifted and he just doesn’t know, but he’s thought of something and he said it.
“That’s completely fine by me.”
READ MORE – Lando Norris: Max Verstappen ‘should start comedy’ amid McLaren F1 title win claim
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