Following his dramatic conflict with Lando Norris on the Austrian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen made clear the place his priorities lie, and so they aren’t along with his critics.
The on-track battle between Verstappen and Norris on the Crimson Bull Ring was a tense one. Each drivers had been vying for the lead on Lap 64 once they collided at Flip 3, successfully ending their possibilities of victory and paving the way in which for a shock win by Mercedes’ George Russell.
For Norris, the result of his battle along with his rival and good friend was a bitter blow, not solely due to his DNF but in addition as a result of his felt that Verstappen’s defensive techniques had been “reckless and silly”, and really a lot towards the principles, as his 10-second penalty for “inflicting a collision” would verify.
Nevertheless, talking at Silverstone on Thursday forward of this weekend’s British Grand Prix, Norris had softened his stance, conceding that each drivers might have probably performed extra to keep away from the expensive run-in.
Closely criticized by the media after final Sunday’s for his overly aggressive protection towards Norris, Verstappen was clearly unfazed by the wave of detrimental critiques judging his driving.
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“I don’t give a shit about that. I am going residence, I stay my life,” he mentioned, with a defiant shrug.
“The one factor that I cared about is sustaining my relationship with Lando, as a result of we’re nice associates.
“After the race, I mentioned we now have to simply let issues settle down as a result of feelings run excessive,” he added.
Max Verstappen speaking to the media on Thursday at Silverstone.
“We instantly spoke on Monday, and I feel we got here to the conclusion that we really actually loved our battle.
“We had been each, after all, we seemed on the incident, it was such a foolish little contact that after all had nice penalties for each of us, and a bit extra for Lando with how the puncture then advanced. However we prefer to race onerous.
“We’ve performed this for a few years, not solely in Formulation 1. Even in on-line racing the place we’ve had lots of enjoyable collectively, and these items, they’ve to hold on as a result of that’s what we love to do, and I feel it’s nice for Formulation 1 as properly.”
Verstappen said that Norris and himself principally agreed on how their on-track battle unfolded, regardless of their collision. The Dutchman additionally advised that calculated risk-taking is important to be a high driver.
“We agreed with 99% of all the things,” he defined. “That’s loads I feel already.
“Naturally I mentioned to Lando, whenever you go for strikes up the within, outdoors, you may belief me that I’m not there to crash you out of the way in which. The identical the opposite method round, as a result of we spoke about that as properly.
“Naturally there’s all the time a human response when somebody dives up the within or outdoors, that you’ve a little bit of a response to it.
“However I felt all the things that I did was nothing massively excessive. In fact like the way you design the automotive, you attempt to go to the sting of the principles.
“Perhaps you discover some gray areas right here and there. And that’s the identical the way you race. In any other case you’ll by no means be a high driver and you’ll by no means reach life anyway.”
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