Max Verstappen believes he was not moving under braking while defending against Lando Norris, before the pair collided in dramatic fashion at the Austrian Grand Prix. The Red Bull and McLaren drivers were involved in a tense battle for the lead in the closing stages at the Red Bull Ring, before they tagged rear wheels at Turn 3 – giving both drivers a puncture and enabling Mercedes’ George Russell to come through for an unexpected victory. Additional reporting by Thomas Maher Norris had voiced his frustration over team radio at what he believed the three-time World Champion to be moving under braking, reacting to the McLaren driver’s moves by blocking late himself – a breach of racing rules.
But Verstappen did not believe this was the case, explaining that Norris’ “really late divebombs” also did not leave him much time to react at times. The Dutchman was able to pit and carry on racing, finishing fifth with his 10-second penalty, while Norris had to retire from the race. “For me, it was not moving under braking, because every time that I moved, I was not braking already,” Verstappen told media including PlanetF1.
com after the race. 👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates 👉 2024 Austrian Grand Prix – race results and latest F1 standings (Spielberg) “Of course, from the outside it always looks like that, but I think I know fairly well what to do in these kinds of scenarios. “And also a few of those are really late divebombs, so .
