Lando Norris makes angry four-word Max Verstappen accusation after Japanese GP chaos | F1 | Sport

Lando Norris shouted ‘he pushed me off’ on the radio after a close call with Max Verstappen on the pit lane exit left the British driver to rumble over the grass. The British racer enjoyed a good launch from the front row of the grid at the race start but couldn’t find an advantage over pole-sitter Verstappen heading into Turn One. From there, the Dutchman stretched out a lead of two seconds, which Norris compressed to 1.5s before the first round of pit stops.

Oscar Piastri triggered the stops on lap 21, and the two race leaders reacted the following tour around the Suzuka Circuit. When the pit crews got to work, Verstappen’s stop was considerably slower than Norris’. This fed the two drivers out of the pit lane side-by-side.

Verstappen had the outside line but couldn’t veer left to give Norris more room without crossing the white pit-exit line, which would have landed the four-time world champion a penalty. The McLaren driver took to the outside.

In doing so, Norris ran over the grassy run-off area on the inside of the track. His MCL39 machine became extremely hard to control, and the Brit was forced to wrestle his steering wheel to avoid a spin. “He pushed me off,” the 25-year-old accused on the radio.

Despite Norris’ convictions, Sky Sports F1 pundit Jacques Villeneuve believed that Verstappen had done nothing wrong, and the stewards agreed. After initially noting the incident, they decided that no further investigation was required.

The Brit is targeting a maiden Drivers’ Championship title in 2025 after claiming four wins in a breakthrough campaign last time around. If he is going to achieve that result this year, he’ll need to fend off both Verstappen, and team-mate Piastri.

“I feel like there is a very prescribed version of how people say a world champion needs to be – overly aggressive,” he told The Guardian ahead of the Japanese GP. “I want to win a championship. I’d rather just be a good person and try to do well.

“I’ll do whatever I can to win a championship but maybe I won’t sacrifice in my life as much as some others, in terms of who I am as a person and have the ‘f*** you’ mentality people say you’ve got to have. I still believe I can be a world champion but doing it by being a nice guy.”