'You can't win' in Verstappen battle - Norris

Lando Norris says he can’t win in a battle with Max Verstappen as he will always be criticized for his approach, after losing time with the defending champion in the Miami Grand Prix.

Verstappen ran Norris wide at Turn 2 at the start of the race and the McLaren dropped to sixth place before climbing back into third and being within a second of Verstappen when teammate Oscar Piastri took the lead. That was a crucial period of the race as Piastri cleared Verstappen after a battle for a number of laps and then escaped up the road to the tune of 9s while Norris struggled to get past the Red Bull.

“What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain, so you can’t win,” Norris said. “But it’s the way it is with Max – it’s crash or don’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today. I’m still happy with second.”

Norris was also critical of Verstappen’s approach at the start of the race, claiming the Dutchman’s defense cost him a chance of finishing higher himself.

“It was fine. He’s fighting hard, but it’s up to him to do that,” he said. “He’s ruining his own race. He’s not racing very smart. We probably could have finished 1-2 today, and didn’t because of that. So he’s fighting, that is always expected, but that’s what it is.”

After finally getting into second place, the margin to Piastri effectively doubled from the gap that existed between the McLaren drivers prior to their respective battles with Verstappen, but Norris said he still believed he could put pressure on his teammate until the closing stages of Piastri’s victory.

“I gave it a good shot from when I got into second,” he said. “There was a long way to go — I think 25, 30 laps almost at that point. I probably only stopped pushing the last four to five laps. The gap went from almost 10s to 4s or 3s, almost. I did all I could.

“I tried the whole race, basically, until the very end. I kept belief the whole race, but Oscar’s driving well. He’s quick. To catch from 10s was always going to be impossible, but I gave it a good shot. I almost got there. Just not enough laps.”