Verstappen and Norris make contact in the closing stages of the race

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Verstappen and Norris make contact
30 June at 15:21
Last update 30 June at 15:28
11
  • Tim Kraaij

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris hit each other after a long duel. Norris and Verstappen both suffered punctures in the duel and lost the race lead. George Russell now leads, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri. Max Verstappen is in fifth and has been given a 10-second penalty. Lando Norris has retired.

Max Verstappen seemed to be in the lead without any problems, but Verstappen complained several times about his hard tyres on the onboard radio. According to Verstappen, they were '***'. In traffic, with drivers who were lapped by Verstappen, Verstappen lost a lot of time. The eight-second lead was suddenly down to six seconds. The pressure continued to increase on Verstappen, who could not handle the old medium tyres. With pressure from Haas drivers behind him, Verstappen insisted on going in. However, things went wrong at the pit stop.

The pit stop was slow and due to Norris coming in, Red Bull also had to wait before releasing Max. Under the pressure from Norris, Verstappen also made a small mistake entering turn four. The Dutchman braked a little too late on cold tyres but just made it to the corner. As a result, Norris came within a second of Verstappen and could open the attack. During Lando Norris' first attack on Max Verstappen, Norris wanted to attack again in turn three. This time, however, Verstappen responded by steering inside. However, according to Norris, this was not according to the rules, because Verstappen reacted too late. Not much later, Norris came up with his next attempt on Verstappen.

This time, Norris was able to get on the inside of Verstappen but was unable to keep his car on the track. So for the next corner, he gave the place back to Verstappen. On the radio, Norris continued to complain about Verstappen's illegal actions. On lap 63, Norris finally got it done in turn three, but Norris continued off track and retained the position. Norris tried again and then it went wrong. Norris was on the outside, where Verstappen steered, causing both drivers to suffer a flat tyre. Verstappen was able to continue after a pit stop, but the race was over for Norris.

Watch the incident here: