“I'm here to win, not to finish 2nd”: Max Verstappen on his incident with Lando Norris at the Austrian GP

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen defended himself and claimed that he wasn't in F1 to finish second after his collision with McLaren driver Lando Norris at the 2024 Austrian GP on Sunday. The Dutch driver has faced a lot of criticism for his defending against the Brit during the final phase of the race at the Red Bull Ring.

The three-time world champion was found embroiled in the battle for the lead and defending his position from Norris after the former had a poor last pitstop that gave away his seven-second advantage.

Lando Norris went on the attack and tried to pass Verstappen on several occasions but wasn't able to make the move stick. But on Lap 59, both drivers came together in Turn 3 after the Red Bull driver made a late defense which caused a puncture for both cars.

While Verstappen was able to continue and eventually finish in P5, Norris did not have such luck and retired from the race.

During his post-race interview, Max Verstappen was asked if he could have let Lando Norris by as the latter was due to get a 5-second penalty for his track limit excursions. The 26-year-old replied:

"I could also stay at home? I'm here to win, not to finish 2nd. When you're fighting for the win, why can't you fight the hard way?"

Max Verstappen calls Lando Norris collision 'unfortunate'

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen stated that the collision with the McLaren driver was 'unfortunate' and that he would look at the footage to further analyze the clash.

As per F1.com, the Dutch driver said:

“It’s of course unfortunate, stuff that you don’t want to see happening – it’s as simple as that. Of course, I will look back at it, because at the moment it’s easy to say stuff.

“I think it’s just better to look back at the footage of what exactly went wrong because it was a bit of, I would say, an awkward angle that we touched, something that was very weird. Also for both of us that we had a puncture with it, it was really bad."

He further claimed that he and the team did "so many things wrong throughout the race that we put ourselves in a position like that, so there were also things that we have to improve.”

While Max Verstappen had mentioned that he would talk to Lando Norris eventually about the incident, the latter had revealed that if the three-time world champion fails to take the blame for the incident, he might lose respect for the Red Bull driver.

The Red Bull driver was able to add 10 points to his tally in the Driver's Championship to extend his lead from Lando Norris at the end of the race.