Lando Norris goes off in battle with Max Verstappen at the 2024 Mexican Grand Prix.
Lando Norris goes off in battle with Max Verstappen
Plain dangerous, ridiculous and short-fuse red mist, that’s how Martin Brundle described Max Verstappen’s second lap 10 incident with Lando Norris in Mexico.
The former F1 driver turned pundit reckons the Red Bull driver was fortunate not to incur a drive-through penalty for it.
Martin Brundle calls out Max Verstappen’s ‘dangerous’ antics
Verstappen and Norris had yet another contentious Sunday afternoon of racing as they went wheel-to-wheel for second place behind Carlos Sainz at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Norris challenged Verstappen for position around the outside of Turn 4 but was forced off the track. But it didn’t stop there as the Dutchman, now P3 behind Norris, attacked up the inside a few corners later and forced them both off the track even though there was a barrier just metres away from the edge of the run-off. Verstappen emerged ahead and did not yield the position.
He was given two 10-second penalties, the first for forcing Norris off the track and the second for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.
Brundle was not impressed with the reigning World Champion’s antics especially in the second incident which he felt was dangerous.
Commentating on the race for Sky Sports, Brundle said during the broadcast: “I had a feeling he would have something else coming his way. The first one was rude and cheeky, the second one was just plain dangerous.
“That’s just about a full pit stop for a penalty.”
Brundle doubled down on that after the Grand Prix, calling the first incident a squabble while the second was a case of red mist from Verstappen.
“The second one I was particularly upset about,” he said. “This [Turn 4 incident] is all the squabble over apex and outside and inside, and he simply didn’t leave racing room.
“This [Turn 7] is just a red mist moment, and actually a ridiculous moment.
“He’s just carried on the throttle and taken the pair of them off and I think he’s lucky he didn’t get a drive-through penalty or something like that actually.
“I’m so in awe of Max, and I hate it when he does that sort of thing, because he’s better than that. He’s too good to drive like that.
“I honestly think that was a short-fuse red mist.”
Asked if it came out of frustration, the former F1 driver replied: “Probably. But I think it was all to do with the Turn 4, the previous incident as it were, and it cost him more dearly.
“But I think he’s carrying some frustration because he’s got the third-fastest car on the track at the moment. Yes, there is that to it but…
“We know he’s feisty, we know he’s aggressive, and that’s what you want to see in your Formula One racing. That’s what we’ve always enjoyed whether it was, you know, Senna v Prost, or Senna v Mansell, or Mansell v Piquet, all through the decades were about that.
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