Lando Norris claims he “won” Max Verstappen battle in Austria despite DNF

Lando Norris has claimed he “won” the battle with Max Verstappen at the Austrian Grand Prix earlier this year despite it ending with a DNF.

Norris and Verstappen collided while battling for the lead at the Red Bull Ring.

The pair’s contact forced Norris to retire from the race, while Verstappen could only finish fifth, handing George Russell an unlikely race victory.

Verstappen had been cruising up until the final round of pit stops.

However, a slow Red Bull pit stop left him vulnerable to Norris, who was on a fresh set of tyres at the time.

Fortunately for Verstappen, he was able to outscore Norris by 10 points, rather than lose seven points in the race for the title.

While at the time, it wasn’t expected that Norris would be in title contention, come the end of the year, the events of Austria could be pivotal in deciding who wins the drivers’ title.

In an interview with The Athletic, Norris reflected on his intense duel with Verstappen.

“Things didn’t end the way I wanted them to,” Norris conceded.

“And I still feel like on that Sunday, I probably won the battle of … taking the fight to him, although I didn’t win who came out on top that day.”

Verstappen is widely regarded as the “hardest” driver to race against on track.

He’s often unforgiving with his defending, as seen against Lewis Hamilton in 2021.

Norris conceded that racing Verstappen at the front in F1 is “still quite new”, admitting the Dutchman has an advantage given his experience in the sport.

“Max is probably the hardest guy to race on the track,” Norris added.

“He’s probably one of the most aware in terms of situations. And helped by him being in this position for the last four or five years. For me, it’s still quite new.”

Heading into next weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Verstappen sits 52 points ahead of Norris with six rounds to go.