Lando Norris’ first words on ‘not very clean’ Verstappen after latest Mexico GP clash

Lando Norris, against his wishes, had prepared himself for more Max Verstappen fireworks in Mexico, but said his title rival’s actions did not represent clean driving.

Like at the previous round in Austin, Verstappen and Norris again found themselves in a fierce battle early in the Mexican GP, but unlike last weekend where Norris got a five-second penalty, this time, Verstappen was handed 20 seconds worth of time penalties.

Lando Norris comments on ‘not very clean’ Max Verstappen driving

In a repeat of Austin, Norris looked to go around the outside of Verstappen into Turn 4 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and was shown the run-off, before Verstappen ushered his title rival off again at Turn 8. The stewards were not impressed and gave Verstappen a pair of 10-second time penalties.

Norris went on to finish runner-up to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, while Verstappen recovered to P6 at the chequered flag.

“It was a very tough race,” Norris reflected. “The first few laps, a lot of it was just trying to stay in the race and avoid any crashes.

“But Carlos drove a very good race. So congratulations to Carlos and Ferrari. They were very quick today. So I tried, I tried my best.

“And a big thanks to all the fans. The fans make it very enjoyable here. So yeah, a big thank you to everyone.”

But, as Norris was asked for his take on those Verstappen fireworks, he said he had prepared himself for some “not very clean” tactics to be used against him.

“Yeah. I mean, I knew what to expect,” he said.

“I didn’t want to expect such a thing because I respect Max a lot as a driver, but I was ready to expect something like this.

“And this is, yeah, not very clean driving in my opinion. But I avoided it and it was a good race.”

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Norris has given his title hopes a much-needed boost with four rounds to go, narrowing Verstappen’s advantage to 47 points, but his focus is solely on what he can do.

“I just keep my head down, you know. I’m doing my best,” he said. “We’re doing a very good job as a team. I think today we were probably the quickest in the end.

“But we keep our head down. That’s all I can do for now. We focus on ourselves and we keep pushing.”

The next battleground soon arrives in the form of the Brazilian Grand Prix next weekend, where the F1 Sprint format is back in action.

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