Lando Norris opens up on battling Max Verstappen: “Either you crash or you don’t pass”. Lando Norris reflects on his tough battles with Max Verstappen.

Second place is not enough
The second-place finish in the Miami GP cannot bring too much joy to Lando Norris. The Briton is back on the podium, but the win by his teammate Oscar Piastri now puts him 16 points behind the other ‘papaya.’ The gap in wins between the two is also becoming significant – 4 to 1 in favor of Piastri – and the trend is worrying: Piastri has now claimed his third consecutive victory in Florida.

Max nightmare
If the internal team battle wasn’t enough, Lando Norris seems to be facing once again the nightmare of duels with Max Verstappen, a challenge that characterized the second half of last season. The second-place finish was primarily due to two battles lost to the Red Bull driver: the first at the start, when Verstappen once again forced him off track with little regard, causing him to drop from second to sixth; the second in the first stint, when Lando Norris spent four long laps trying to overtake the #1 car, which, despite being slower, was blocking every overtaking attempt. As Oscar Piastri pulled away at the front, the gap was created that the Australian could manage through the final stages of the Miami Grand Prix last Sunday.

“The second place? Yes, it’s never a nice feeling,” Norris admitted while talking to the official F1 channel right after the race. “But the team did an amazing job, so I can’t blame them. Good pit stops, great pace… we were in the lead. So it felt good. But Oscar drove well. Max fought like always, and I paid the consequences for it. But that’s how it goes.” Lando Norris was then pressed by the interviewer to elaborate on the start incident, for which he had even requested – unsuccessfully – a penalty for Max Verstappen over the radio.

“Either you collide or you don’t pass”
“What can I say? If I don’t make the move, people complain. If I try, people complain. So I’m wrong either way. But with Max, it’s like this: either you collide, or you don’t pass. Unless you can really do it the right way and get him into the perfect position, then you can make it. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today. But I’m still happy with second place.” For now, the difference with Oscar Piastri seems to be this: he succeeded in overtaking Verstappen in a direct duel.