Max Verstappen ‘laughed’ at ‘amazing’ question about Lando Norris controversy before Mexico City Grand Prix

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Formula 1 may have moved on to the Mexico City Grand Prix, but the debate is still on the controversial events of the race in Austin.

Max Verstappen extended his lead in the championship by winning his fourth Sprint race of the year at the United States Grand Prix, while title rival Lando Norris finished third behind Carlos Sainz after being overtaken on the final lap.

Norris took pole position for the race, but the McLaren and Red Bull driver did not have an answer for the rapid Ferraris as they secured a one-two finish.

The two championship protagonists went head-to-head in a tense battle for third at the closing stages of the race at the Circuit of the Americas. Norris made a lunge into turn 12 on Verstappen after the long back straight.

However, Norris was controversially awarded a five-second time penalty for passing Verstappen off the track and was subsequently demoted to fourth. The Brit has now fallen further behind the Dutchman as the lead in the championship extends to 57 points.

Red Bull also cut McLaren’s advantage in the Constructors’ Championship down from 41 points to 40 with five rounds to go. The fight for the title is set to intensify given the incidents at the United States Grand Prix, with Helmut Marko criticising Zak Brown for trying to cause ‘unrest’ at Red Bull with his comments about Verstappen being mentally stronger than Norris.

Max Verstappen laughs at question put to him about his involvement in Lando Norris’ penalty in Austin

The attention is still on the controversy in Austin as F1 heads to Mexico, as McLaren have lodged a right of appeal against Norris’ penalty. Damon Hill says the issue ‘should be interesting’ as to whether the decision is overturned.

However, these occurrences are very rare and McLaren will have to provide new evidence that the stewards have not seen before for the penalty to be voided and Norris reinstated as third in the race.

Speaking via the Pit Pass F1 Podcast, Julianne Cerasoli discussed how Verstappen laughed at a question put to him by the media about whether he intended to make the corner in his battle with Norris. The McLaren driver is adamant that Verstappen did not do this and left him with nowhere to go but off the track to avoid an accident.

“So for Norris, it’s very clear that this is what happened,” said Cerasoli. “He said: ‘He only managed to get in front of me at the apex because he went off the track. He wouldn’t have been ahead of me at the apex had he braked when he should have been braking, and that’s very obvious.’

“Verstappen on the other hand, and I asked this to Norris and this was his reply to me. I asked him why do you think the stewards didn’t follow the guidelines, and he said it’s because of this.

“And then I asked Max about this perception that he only tried to get ahead at the apex to stay within the rules and he didn’t even think about making the corner. And then he laughed, and then he said: ‘It’s amazing that people can read my mind. I always try to make the corner, I wasn’t looking for a shortcut.”

What does the championship battle look like heading into the Mexico City Grand Prix?

With Verstappen classified ahead of Norris in Austin, heading into the Mexico City Grand Prix, the McLaren driver must now outscore the three-time defending champion by 11.4 points in each of the last five rounds.

This is now an even bigger mountain to climb for the Brit and he will have a lot riding on the penalty being overturned from Austin to give him just that smaller of a gap to close. But as aforementioned, this will be a very difficult feat for McLaren to pull off.

Red Bull made great improvements to the RB20 to give them better performance in Austin, but it is clear that McLaren and Ferrari still have a slight advantage in race pace given how quick Norris was in the final stages of the race and how Ferrari pulled away and controlled proceedings rather unchallenged.

Norris will have to hope Verstappen slips up in any of these five Grand Prix for him to have a chance to dethrone the Dutchman, but after the events of the previous race, it may be too late for the Brit to close the gap.