'He ruined his own race' - Norris's ire with Verstappen
Lando Norris feels Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen wasn't "racing very smart" in the Miami Grand Prix.
Lando Norris feels Formula 1 title rival Max Verstappen wasn't "racing very smart" in the Miami Grand Prix.
Norris' two battles with Verstappen effectively decided the race in team-mate Oscar Piastri's favour. First, Verstappen closed the door on Norris through Turn 2 on the opening lap after a compromised Turn 1 entry - with Norris going off-track and rejoining sixth.
The move irked Norris in the moment, but was quickly dismissed by the FIA stewards as not requiring an investigation.
Verstappen then fought off Piastri for the lead for a few laps before having to yield - lunging down the inside of Turn 1 but washing out well wide, with Piastri taking over the position.
Norris had caught up with them by then, but Verstappen didn't make it easy for him either, putting up another multi-lap fight - which even included Norris getting ahead but having to give back position due to not staying within track limits - before the McLaren's superior pace finally paid off in full.
Norris clearly felt after the race he'd had the best pace - pointing out that he turned a nine-second lead for Piastri into just around four seconds by the final laps - and Piastri himself admitted he'd had "not the strongest second half of the race of my life".
But both were clear there was no playing down McLaren's advantage of the day, which also contributed to how Norris saw Verstappen's defensive driving.
When asked about it, he took a pause of several seconds deliberating his answer before saying: "No, it was fine. I mean...he's fighting hard. But it's up to him to do that."
Yet what seemed like a conciliatory approach quickly turned into a different tone.
"You know, he ruined his own race- he's not racing very smart. He probably could've finished third today and he didn't, because of that.
"So, yeah, he's fighting hard, as always expected. But that's the way it is."
An earlier answer from Piastri - when asked on his experience of getting by Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli early on and then catching and overtaking Verstappen - hit a similar note, albeit much more indirectly.
"I mean, to be honest with you, Kimi was very nice to me, didn't make life very tough," Piastri said. "Which...it's nice when you race against people that identify when someone is quicker, and then you're not making the race more difficult for the both of us. So that was nice. Obviously, for Max, leading the race... different story.
"But I knew to expect that. And I could tell that we had a lot of pace.
"And like I said, it was kind of a matter of just biding my time, waiting for a moment, or forcing him into a moment, and that's what I was able to do."
Verstappen had 'nothing to lose'
Though Verstappen's defeat in the fight for third place was the result of unlucky virtual safety car timing, Norris may well be referencing the fact that it was close between Verstappen and George Russell on pit exit for the position - and that any damage that had been done to Verstappen's ultimate race time prior to that was crucial.
Verstappen himself insisted losing third was "not frustrating at all".
"We're here to win and today we were miles off that," he said. "Doesn't really matter if you're P4 or P3.
And he said of the battles with the McLarens: "I mean, I had nothing to lose so I also just wanted to have a little bit fun out there."
"They [the McLarens] were miles up the road," he added later. "They were just miles faster than everyone else on a track where thermal degradation is very high, they just have a massive advantage, I think that's quite clear."
