The World Cup duel: Trouble over “dangerous” Verstappen is coming to a head

Max Verstappen has defended his controversial driving style after the recent escalation of the Formula 1 title fight. However, the three-time Formula 1 world champion is more worried about his Red Bull racing car than the increasingly heated discussion about his uncompromising style.

“When you’re slower, you get into these situations,” said Verstappen after the Mexico City Grand Prix. After duels with his World Championship rival Lando Norris in the McLaren, the race stewards punished Verstappen’s behavior with two ten-second penalties and two penalty points. As a result, Verstappen fell back to 15th place, but still worked his way up to sixth place. Norris even described the Dutchman as “dangerous”.

“I don’t give up that easily, and in the end it’s not about whether you agree with the punishment or not,” commented Verstappen. His biggest concern is the speed of his car in the race. Even without the penalty there would have been no chance of winning. Verstappen lost ten points in the standings, and ahead of the last four Grand Prix he is 47 points ahead of Norris. A maximum of 120 points is still up for grabs.

Norris: Not my job to control Verstappen

Norris and Verstappen, who are otherwise very good friends, clashed not for the first time this year. The duel escalated for the first time in Spielberg: After a collision, Norris had to give up and Verstappen came fifth. He received a ten-second penalty for the accident. Norris had been penalized five seconds for leaving the track before his retirement.

A week before the Mexico race, the next incident occurred in Austin. Shortly before the end, Norris received a five-second penalty for an overtaking maneuver against Verstappen. Norris lost his third place again to Verstappen. “I want to have good, hard fights with him, but fair ones,” emphasized Norris in Mexico City. “It’s not my job to control him.”