Verstappen Clashes: "Clumsy" Racing Not for Second

Max Verstappen defends his racing style after a controversial clash, emphasizing his commitment to winning, not just participating.

Max Verstappen took the time to offer a fresh reaction following his clash with Lando Norris in Austria yesterday.

The Red Bull driver reviewed the footage and addressed the accusations made by Lando Norris and Andrea Stella, among others.

He admits he races “hard” but believes he gave enough room even though he finds the collision with his friend “awkward”.

“It’s really unfortunate that this happened. Now, I’ve had a bit more time to look at things in the footage,” Verstappen shared on social media.

“I think at the start, Lando’s initial moves came from quite a distance and my defense was correct. What happened, happened. But then, I think where we touched, honestly, it was a bit clumsy.”

“When you’re in the car at that moment of the collision, you wonder if you did something wrong. Did I not leave enough space, like half a car width instead of one, or something else? Of course, you can always judge or discuss what a car width is.”

“So: I honestly think I left a car width on the white line. Lando still had room on his left, on the curb. When you race, you race hard. I’m not here to give more room than necessary because I know he’s going to touch me at the exit. You race for a race win, at least I don’t race to finish second. I think that’s how it should be.”

“Now Lando… as a friend, you never want to touch, you never want to crash, but yes, it happened. It’s part of racing, even though it’s not pleasant.”

“I think we’re both disappointed with the outcome, but on our side, we also need to look at the race as a whole because I think we did a lot of things wrong, we had two very bad pit stops that cost us ground and that’s why we were fighting until the end, because we had a very comfortable lead.”

“We could definitely have had a slightly different race if we had just executed it better. These are certainly some points to look at and improve for next week.”