Championship runaway chief Max Verstappen denies he was “aggressive” in the direction of Lando Norris of their crash at the Austrian Grand Prix, and labelles the Briton’s overtaking move as “weird”.
Although Max Verstappen dominated the vast majority of the Austrian Grand Prix, a mistake throughout his second pit cease noticed him lose his snug hole to the McLaren of Lando Norris.
The Briton was adamant to capitalize on the chance, and with getting inside DRS vary, he tried a number of overtaking manoeuvres. The pair ultimately got here collectively on Lap 64 at the Red Bull Ring when Verstappen moved barely to the left to fend off the assault from Norris.
The incident noticed each drivers choose up punctures as Norris was compelled out of the race because of the harm he sustained. Although Verstappen was in a position to proceed, he solely completed fifth.
Speaking of the incident, Verstappen famous; “We have been battling as we speak and Lando tried to move across the outdoors, after which we touched with the rear tyres. It was extremely popular so instantly we had a puncture.
“From my aspect it appeared like a weird move however we clearly have to assessment this and naturally we’ll discuss it. The form of the nook additionally offers these sorts of points typically and it’s by no means good to return collectively.
“This, nevertheless, isn’t presently my essential focus as we’d like to have a look at the general efficiency as we speak and the difficulties we had with the automotive. It was very arduous to handle the tyres, the primary stint was not too dangerous and I had a reasonably snug lead, the second stint was tough; I feel we stayed out a bit too lengthy after which there was the difficulty with the pit cease.
“The overall Team performance wasn’t what we expected it to be and the strategy didn’t work that well in this case. It was a shame because of the lead that we had. There are definitely a few things we need to improve looking to next week and hopefully we can work on the performance, tyres and balance,” concluded Verstappen.
His team-mate Sergio Perez had arrived in Spielberg with excessive hopes as he had been intent on enhancing on his disappointing outcomes from the earlier races.
However, the Mexican struggled for tempo, and by no means seemed to have the ability to tackle the battle together with his team-mate or the Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari drivers.
“It could be very disappointing to be on this place as we speak. The race began rather well and we had a strong begin, however then I picked up some harm on Lap 1 and the automotive struggled and was sliding so it was very tough to battle in the direction of the entrance.
“With the harm, I used to be off steadiness and made a mistake going into the pitlane and bought a 5 second time penalty which hindered us in the direction of the tip of the race.
Reflecting on his efficiency at Spielberg, the Mexican added: “There are some things that we have to look again at and punctiliously analyse every part, the race tempo was a query mark as we speak as I felt like we did some actually good enhancements after yesterday.
“Overall we lacked efficiency, it was a really tough race and one which I struggled so much in.
“Next weekend I hope we can have a solid, clean showing, and hopefully will be able to sort all of the problems from this weekend to be able to move forwards as there are still a lot of races left. On to Silverstone.”
A terrific begin from each Bulls 💪 Let’s cost on! 🤘#F1 || #AustrianGP 🇦🇹 pic.twitter.com/ukWC0WWh2r
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) June 30, 2024
Red Bull staff boss Christian Horner tried to choose out the constructive consequence from the Spielberg race, claiming that the staff may be delighted to have prolonged their lead each within the Drivers’ and the Constructors’ Championships.
“For a lot of the race we had it below management, we had an 8 second lead and it seemed prefer it was all okay. We misplaced a while within the pit cease as we had a wheel nut that caught on the left rear, that lower Max’s lead down greater than we might have appreciated and from there it was arduous racing.
“Lando exceeded monitor limits and was going to get a penalty however then there was the contact and that was actually irritating, it was robust racing between these two.
“We’ve still managed to get some points though and extend both Championships,10 points in the Drivers’ and 16 in the Constructors’, the pace of the car has been very strong this weekend, we have had two poles, Max lead the race for all but 9 laps and then the Sprint victory yesterday so it hasn’t been totally disastrous, but, yes, still frustrating, we really would have liked the win, but that is racing,” Horner conlcuced.
