Max Verstappen ‘will not’ apologise to Lando Norris for Austria, ‘at least not publicly’

Max Verstappen “will not” apologise to Lando Norris for their Austrian GP clash, at least he won’t do it in the public forum if he does feel it necessary.

Verstappen and Norris clashed at the Austrian Grand Prix when the Dutchman jinked to the left as Norris tried to pass him around the outside into the braking zone at Turn 3.

‘Max Verstappen will not come and apologise – at least not publicly’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

There was, what has been called by Christian Horner, inevitable contact as the two had raced hard for 10 laps before their battle finally imploded.

With both cars suffering punctures, they dropped down the order as they limped into the pits where Norris retired his McLaren while Verstappen bolted on fresh tyres to complete the Grand Prix.

He did so in fifth place, even in the face of a 10-second time penalty for causing the collision, and thus extended his lead in the Drivers’ standings to 81 points ahead of Norris.

Norris, fuming from the crash, said he would “lose a lot of respect” for Verstappen if the triple World Champion does not at least accept some blame.

However, Verstappen’s initial reaction to the penalty, a sarcastic “of course, sure”, as well as his post-race comments suggest he won’t be doing that.

But if he does, former F1 driver Timo Glock says it won’t be publicly.

“A real hot topic, and understandably on Lando Norris’ part,” he told Sky Deutschland. “This will haunt the two of them for a while in the coming races. Verstappen will not come and apologise – at least not publicly.

“I’m excited to see how the two of them will resolve this… Both of them will certainly not fly back on the same plane today.”

More reaction to the Max Verstappen v Lando Norris clash

👉Lando Norris critical of ‘little bit desperate’ and ‘reckless’ Max Verstappen

👉Verdict: Who was at fault for Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ dramatic Austrian GP clash?

Will the clash affect Verstappen and Norris’ friendship?

That question was put to Verstappen’s team boss Horner who reckons while they may be smarting in the immediate aftermath, both Norris and Verstappen will shrug it off.

After all, they’re two “tough racers” who were giving it their all to win.

“Maybe they won’t play paddle tomorrow but I am sure they will talk about it,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com. They are two hard racers and they will talk about things openly. I have got no doubt about that.

“The relationships between drivers vary up and down the grid. Ultimately there is a respect which is the most important thing and inevitably friendships are put under pressure when you are competing hard.”

And “hard” is how Horner feels Norris was racing Verstappen as he tried to make up for being “mugged” by Oscar Piastri in Saturday’s sprint, a move that Norris called “amateur” on his part.

“He was getting his elbows out. It’s two tough racers,” the Red Bull team boss stated. “It’s probably a bit of a hangover from yesterday. Max passed him without DRS into Turn 4. And then he got mugged by his teammate, so there was probably a little bit of a hangover of that.

“It was a shame, because we had everything under control today. I think the final pit stop put Lando back into contention, and then with the advantage on tyre that he had, that was enough to get him into the DRS.

“I think Max is a hard racer, and they know that. I think Lando was trying to make up for yesterday. It was inevitable that you could see this building perhaps for a couple of races. At some point, there was going to be something close between the two of them.