Lando Norris has opened up on the close encounter with Max Verstappen at the pit lane exit that eventually forced him onto the grass during the Japanese Grand Prix. The two rivals were called in to pit at the same time.
Verstappen maintained the lead in the pit lane as he made it toward the exit. Norris, meanwhile, had also put on a fresh set of hard tires and tried his best to get past Verstappen in the pit lane itself.
But the lack of space meant Norris was forced onto the grass while Verstappen sped away. However, it is to be noted that he wasn’t beside Verstappen, so he still had the option of backing off instead of driving on the grass.
The incident followed intense radio communications between both drivers and their teams. Norris reported, “he forced me off,” while Verstappen responded to his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that Norris “drove himself onto the grass.”
Eventually, there was nothing much the McLaren driver could do. Norris tried gaining on race leader Verstappen and maintained a gap of 1.5 seconds in the last phase of the race. Despite pushing hard, the Red Bull driver crossed the finish line first, which marked his first victory of the 2025 season and his fourth win at the Suzuka Circuit.
Addressing the tough battle with Verstappen, Norris said after the race:
“Yeah, I guess just lost out yesterday, you know, Max drove a good race today, no mistakes, and, the pace was too similar today to do anything more. Long race, a lot of pushing, so it’s a flat out race from start to finish, so, tough, but, yeah, just not enough today, nothing special that we had that we could get Max on.
“They [Red Bull] were quick and no mistakes, like I said, so, he deserved it.”
When asked about the close encounter with Verstappen where he went over the grass, Norris said:
“It’s racing, I think. I mean, he was still ahead. It kind of squeezes into one, and, Max is the last guy I expect to give me any space, you know, in a good way and then in a racing way.”
Despite his Drivers’ Championship lead taking a light hit, Norris said it was a positive weekend for the team.
“I think it’s still been a very good weekend. I didn’t get the positions that we wanted, and, you know, we were fighting for a win every weekend, but they deserved it. Both Red Bull and Max deserved it this weekend, and they’re quick, they’ve been catching up. They’ve obviously made some improvements and as a team, we didn’t have enough this weekend, so we’ll have to work harder for the next one.”
Formula One heads to Bahrain next weekend, which will be the second Grand Prix of the triple header.
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