Martin Brundle pinpoints blame after Lando Norris and Max Verstappen clash at Austrian Grand Prix
Martin Brundle believes Max Verstappen is to blame for his crash with Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
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Martin Brundle believes Max Verstappen is to blame for his crash with Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
With both men going for glory at the Red Bull Ring there was a collision, with Norris forced to withdraw from the race.
Verstappen could only go on to finish fifth, with George Russell winning the event and capitalising on the chaotic incident in the process.
After the race, Norris made it clear he was unhappy - and said he would 'lose respect' for Verstappen if he didn't front up and accept responsibility.
Martin Brundle believes Max Verstappen is to blame for his crash with Lando Norris at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
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Verstappen, for his part, has said it was 'one of those things' - with the Red Bull star defending himself.
And Brundle, speaking on Sky Sports, has now weighed in - with the pundit expressing a belief that Verstappen will have to 'take the blame'.
"That was going to happen at some point," he said.
"They were getting so aggressive with each other.
"Max veered left towards him; he squeezed him out. Max will have to take the blame for that one, in my view.
"That was sort of Max reverting to early years Max, getting the razor blades on his elbows into the braking zones.
"I don't know how those plane journeys, dinners and gaming is going to go between Verstappen and Norris now.
"That's taken a turn, hasn't it?"
Former racing star Naomi Schiff agreed, with the 30-year-old claiming Verstappen has taken a 'slight step backwards'.
"If I put myself in the cockpit, I think Lando for a couple of races has been hunting down Max to the end," she said.
READ MORE:Lewis Hamilton dubs Austrian Grand Prix 'shocking' as George Russell wins dramatic F1 race
"Inevitably, the more that happens the more desperate he is going to get to try and get past, of course.
"So he made a couple of moves, they didn't stick. He made a couple of more desperate moves from further back.
"So those moments were already starting to, let's say, upset the Red Bull pit wall, to upset Verstappen.
"Then you sort of see Max retaliating for that in a way, and we have seen this in the past.
"We used to have Max 1.0 and he then evolved to Max 2.0.
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Max Verstappen and Lando Norris were involved in a crash at the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday
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"This is what surprises me today - we keep saying he has evolved so much, he has matured so much, but today I think he took a slight step backwards in that sense in that he behaved in the way we have seen him behave in the past and, ultimately, it wasn't necessary."
Unsurprisingly, team principals Christian Horner and Andrea Stella were also left in disagreement.
Red Bull chief Horner defended Verstappen, saying: "For me, it looked like there was enough space up there for Lando and he'd already had the violation with the four strikes of track limits.
"One of those things. We'll bounce back next weekend.
"You've got hard racers and I think that Lando was being pretty… he got his elbows out. There's been contact before with them and in the end it cost both of them.
Lando Norris was furious after his crash with Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix
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"He [Max] picked up a puncture, he got the penalty. I thought the penalty was harsh. That's racing sometimes.
"It's frustrating, particularly here at this race. That's the way racing goes sometimes."
But Stella was furious and suggested Red Bull had risked harming their reputation.
The McLaren chief said: "I see that the entire population in the world would know who is responsible except for a group of people.
"But the problem behind it is that if you don't address these things honestly, they will come back.
George Russell capitalised on the crash between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen as he won the Austrian Grand Prix
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"They have come back today because they were not addressed properly in the past when there was some fights with Lewis [Hamilton] that needed to be punished in a harsher way.
"Like this, you learn now to race in a certain way, which we can consider fair square.
"The fact is that we have so much respect for Red Bull, so much respect for Max - they don't need to do this. It's a way to almost compromise your reputation.
"Why would you do that?"