Max Verstappen presented himself to the microphones after the GP Austria composed, cool and, as always, confident. After dominating the qualifying and the sprint race yesterday, the Dutch driver finished today's race only in fifth position. Thanks to the last slow pit stop, Verstappen saw Lando Norris getting closer and closer, as he tried to win with all his might. The heat and tension between the two led them to heavy contact, which cost them both the victory. Despite everything, the world champion still managed to pull ahead of his rivals in the drivers' standings.
Verstappen fails to take home the Austrian GP
An important result for Max Verstappen and, above all, for the team fades away Red Bull, who played at home here in Austria. The Dutch driver fought with all his strength to maintain first position against a very fast Lando Norris. Not only did the slow pit stop slow down the Red Bull standard bearer from yet another victory, but a rather heavy block in turn four and a very dirty defense against his English opponent were also accomplices. Verstappen, who hadn't been engaged in such a tough duel for a long time, once again showed his limits in hand-to-hand combat. In fact, we had already seen him nervous and not very clean in these situations. Just think of what happened in Jeddah and, above all, in Interlagos in 2021 with then rival Lewis Hamilton. Verstappen, however, did not say he was aggressive when speaking, placing the responsibility for the incident on Norris.
“I don't think I was particularly aggressive in anything I did. If someone had been aggressive I would say it was the opposite. Clearly he (Norris) tried to overtake me, but sometimes he dived a little late, like he did yesterday too. But at a certain point he lost control. I wasn't aggressive at all. I've found myself in his position many times in my life, unfortunately in the end we touched each other in a rather awkward way."
Verstappen finishes fifth but gains on his pursuers in the world championship
After contact with Norris, Verstappen suffered a puncture. This forced him to pit and have to serve a ten second penalty which was later served at the end of the race. Despite the final result, Red Bull's number 1 still extended his lead in the drivers' standings, as Norris was forced to retire and Leclerc ended a troubled race in eleventh place. However, Verstappen said he was sorry for losing the race, not sparing some criticism of his team: "clearly it's something you would never want to happen. Unfortunately it happened, it was a race in which we made him get too close due to some bad decisions and bad pit stops. That was the problem today."
