Lando Norris says he’s excited by the prospect of fighting Max Verstappen more often in the future despite the pair’s controversial clash in last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.
At the Red Bull Ring, Norris and Verstappen found themselves in a thrilling duel for the lead when sparks flew in the closing stages of the race.
As the pair charged into Turn 3 with six laps to go, Verstappen squeezed the McLaren driver as the latter attempted a pass on the outside of the Red Bull, which triggered a two-fold contact that led to a puncture for both drivers.
After limping back to the pits, Verstappen was able to complete the race in fifth position despite picking up a 10-second penalty. But Norris wasn’t so lucky, the damage from his shredded tyre forcing McLaren to retire his car.
Speaking on Wednesday on the Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Norris said that he stands by his racing actions and wouldn’t change his approach if he had to do it again.
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The 24-year-old accepts that pushing the limits can sometimes lead to incidents, but even after his on-track spat with Verstappen, Norris is eager to battle the Dutchman again in the future.
“I reviewed everything, we’ve gone over stuff, and let’s say I won’t really change what I did,” he said.
“I was fighting, and that’s what we want – we want to fight! We don’t want to complain, we don’t want things to end like they did, both from Max’s side and from my side. So, that’s life sometimes.
“We’re fighting, we both want to win, and we’re going to push it to the limits – some slightly more than others.
“At the same time, I’m excited. We’re going to have more fights together, and I look forward to those times.”
Norris admitted that making split-second decisions while driving in a race is incredibly challenging and far more complex than it appears on television.
It’s tough. It’s a lot harder to do some things when you’re behind the wheel,” he said.
“It’s never as easy as saying, ‘Why did you do that? Why didn’t you do this?’ Because when you’re in the car and you’re making these decisions…”
“It’s so hard to be as accurate as what it looks like on TV. So when it is those two centimetres that it should be or stuff like that, it’s almost impossible to judge.
“But that’s what it is, that’s the competition we’re against, and we love it. We want to go out and race hard and we want it to be easy, because we just want to win.
“But at the same time, it puts a smile on our face when we can have that competition in a race, and I think it’s good for everyone watching.”
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