Martin Brundle ‘surprised’ by what Lando Norris is now saying about Max Verstappen

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Lando Norris and Max Verstappen both arrived at Silverstone on Thursday knowing they would have to address their collision at the Austrian Grand Prix. It was the story making all the headlines heading into the weekend.

The duo have battled for multiple race victories this season. Their rivalry truly began at the Miami GP, when Norris streaked clear of Verstappen following a safety-car restart to score his first-ever F1 win.

He then caught the Dutchman in the closing stages at Imola, finishing just 0.7 seconds adrift at the chequered flag. In Canada, Norris looked on course to win after passing the Red Bull but this time the safety car counted against him.

They were first and second once again in Barcelona, but the McLaren star was left ruing a slow start that may have cost him victory. He tried to outfox Verstappen and Red Bull strategically but wasn’t able to get close enough to apply serious pressure.

Austria played host to their first sustained on-track battle of the campaign. Verstappen held a commanding lead before a botched pit stop brought Norris back into play.

The Briton failed to execute the first couple of moves he attempted, though he did complain over the radio about the world champion moving under braking during his defence. On lap 64, they came together, with Verstappen picking up a 10-second penalty as Norris had to retire with damage.

Martin Brundle says Lando Norris let Max Verstappen ‘off the ropes’

Speaking in the press conference on Thursday (FIA), Norris backtracked on some of the comments he made immediately after the race. He’d originally called for Verstappen to apologise, but he now says that wasn’t necessary.

He attributed his reaction to ‘a lot of adrenaline’ and ‘a lot of emotions’. As far as he was concerned, he and Verstappen had put the incident to bed in their post-race talks.

But Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has questioned whether this was the best way to handle the situation. He fears that Norris has taken a ‘psychological’ defeat.

In his eyes, great historic rivals like Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost would have taken a different approach. He can’t understand how the two drivers appear to be ‘best mates’ again so soon after the incident.

“I’m surprised Lando’s let Max off the ropes like that if I’m honest,” Brundle said. “He should have kept in there a little bit. Max is a streetfighter extraordinaire. I think psychologically, that’s another one up to Max in that particular battle.

“I’m coming from the era of Mansell vs Piquet, Prost vs Senna and even more recently Lewis vs Max. I don’t know how you can be best mates on a Monday morning.”

Norris admits he isn’t ‘at the level’ of two F1 rivals

Norris has shown a great deal of humility following his ascent to the front of the grid. He’s second in the championship as it stands, 81 points behind Verstappen.

He may have joined the race winners’ club and picked up 19 podiums, but he still sees plenty of scope to improve. Indeed, he recently admitted that he’s not ‘at the level’ of either Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton when it comes to consistently delivering.

Many F1 drivers felt that Verstappen occasionally broke the wheel-to-wheel rules when he last had a consistent challenger in the form of Hamilton in 2021. Now that Norris in particular is so close, he may resort to the same aggressive and controversial tactics.

The key question for the 24-year-old is how he responds. Norris will be gunning for a first victory on home soil this weekend, but Verstappen will almost certainly stand in the way, setting the stage for another scrap.