Max Verstappen denies being "aggressive" towards Lando Norris in their Austrian Grand Prix clash in Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, and dismissed his rival’s claim that he wasn’t moving under braking during their intense duel.
After two flash points during which they came close to colliding, the pair came to blows on lap 64 of 71, when Norris slipped up the outside of Verstappen at the tight, sharply uphill Turn 3 right-hander.
As Verstappen attempted to squeeze the McLaren out, the two cars touched before the Red Bull driver veered into Norris’ outside line on the exit of the corner, a maneuver that left Verstappen with a puncture and Norris with a more severely damaged car that forced his retirement.
The on-track rift paved the way for Mercedes’ George Russell to snatch victory while the stewards deemed Verstappen predominantly responsible for the collision, handing the Dutchman an inconsequential 10-second penalty that had no bearing on his fifth-place finish.
However, Verstappen felt that the sanction “seemed a bit severe for me at that point”.
“Because I didn't feel like it was super – like anything kind of aggressive – going on in that movement.”
In response to Norris’ accusations that he had moved under breaking to protect his position at Turn 3 during their two previous wheel-to-wheel encounters at the corner, Verstappen defended his driving.
"For me, it was not moving under braking,” he said. “Because every time that I moved, I was not braking already.
“Of course from the outside, it always looks like that, but I think I know fairly well what to do in this kind of scenarios.
"Also a few of those are really late dive bombs [from Norris], so it's a bit of just sending it up the inside and just hope that the other guy steers out of it.
"It's not always how you race, but I think it's just the corner here that lends to that as well. I've been in the other position as well where you go for it, and it's just the shape of the corner.
"I think the move that we got together was something that I didn't expect.
"I saw him coming of course, so I defended a little bit the inside. And then under braking we touched with the rear tyres and we both get a puncture from it, which of course is something you don't want to happen."
Pressed on Norris’ “moving under breaking” complaints, Verstappen again defended his on-track behavior.
"That's what I meant with the dive-bombing," he said. "It's just standing it up late and just hoping that the other guy steers out of it and you make the corner, which wasn't the case.
"Of course, you can say moving on the braking for me, which wasn't the case because I didn't brake when I moved.
"But it's also a bit like just sending it up the inside from far, which of course looks good. I like it as well, but sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't.
"And I think today that didn't work out. But then of course, like I said before, with the contact that we have, it's super unfortunate."
Verstappen and Norris enjoy a close friendship, but after Sunday’s race the pair were clearly at odds with each other regarding their interpretation of their actions.
Speaking to the media, Norris went as far as to say: “If he said he did nothing wrong, then I’d lose a lot of respect”.
But Verstappen reckoned the pair would have a talk about events in de course, and hopefully “move on”.
"We'll talk about it, but not now," he said. "It's not the right time. But you know, we're racing drivers.
"Lando and I, we have a little age gap [Norris is 24 and Verstappen 26] – that's why we never really raced against each other in lower categories compared to some other drivers here.
"But yeah, we'll move on from here then."
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