Verstappen: ‘McLaren complains a lot’ amid Norris battle at US GP

Max Verstappen weighs in on his contested battle with Lando Norris in the US Grand Prix

Max Verstappen says he has no sympathy for McLaren arguing he pushed Lando Norris off at Turn 12 in Austin, saying Red Bull’s rival has been “complaining a lot recently”.

Norris had been chasing Verstappen for third place for most of the second stint of the COTA’s 56-lap race when he attacked his championship rival around the outside of the Turn 12 left-hander.

Verstappen defended the inside and appeared ahead at the apex, and then drifted wide until he left the track with all four tyres, forcing Norris to go wide with him on his outside.

Norris still came out ahead, with both drivers and teams at odds over who should give way as Red Bull argued Norris shouldn’t have overtaken while off the track.The Briton decided to keep the position instead of letting Verstappen back past, and that ultimately made the stewards hand him a five-second penalty, which dropped him back to fourth behind Verstappen in the results.

When asked by Motorsport.com if he had any sympathy for McLaren’s side of the argument, Verstappen replied: “No, I don’t. I mean, they complain about a lot recently.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

“It’s very clear in the rules, outside the white line you cannot pass. I have been done for it as well in the past – I think in 2017, or whenever it was, so I lost my podium like that.

“So I just remained calm, trying to do the best I could after that to bring the car to the end. It was not easy with the tyres and the situation that I was in. But overall, I still really enjoyed that battle that we had.”

Verstappen was referring to McLaren taking issue with Red Bull’s device to change the height of its front bib, which had dominated the news agenda earlier in the weekend.

A similar incident occurred at the start, when polesitter Norris covered the inside of the Turn 1 hairpin but still left the door ajar for the Dutchman to squeeze through.

Ultimately both drivers went off, handing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc a golden opportunity to swoop past on his way to winning the COTA race.

“There was a gap on the inside, so I went for it,” Verstappen commented on his start. “That corner is very wide, so it gives you a lot of opportunity of going very wide or trying to go really tight.

“I chose that option, and I still came out second this time, and it was Charles in front. I think it worked out quite well for me, because Charles was faster anyway, so he just pulled away.

“Today wasn’t the best race for us compared to yesterday – just struggling for balance, for grip. I couldn’t really brake, rotate the car, so quite quickly I realised that I wasn’t going to win the race, so I just tried to do my own race.”