While Daniel Ricciardo is arguably the funniest F1 driver on the grid, the little joker Lando Norris is not far behind. But he was embroiled in controversy this weekend in Portugal when Red Bull accused him of deliberately blocking Max Verstappen in qualifying.
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However, it appears that both parties blocked the incident in a rather comical way. During this week’s McLaren Unboxed, the Red Bull crew was filmed throwing a paper airplane at Lando Norris. It read: “Don’t bother us again.”
Of course, Lando wouldn’t ignore it without receiving an adequate response. He wrote back on the same piece of paper and called Max Verstappen: “Don’t start the round so close. Had it not been for the Pole anyway, he (Max) messed up the last MUPPET sector! “
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As we saw a few days ago, this was the same paper airplane that Norris used to throw up the window of Red Bull’s RV. McLaren’s social media account gave a sneak peek into the incident. Red Bull, on the other hand, reacted in weird ways, perhaps to build up the hype for this silly fight.
McLaren & Lando Norris denied blocking Max Verstappen following Marko’s allegations
While everything is fun and games now, the Saturday incident exploded. Max wasn’t happy because he felt he could have put his car on pole if it hadn’t been for traffic.
The Red Bull advisor, Dr. Helmut Marko, hinted that there was a bad game when Lando was told on the radio not to do Max a favor.
Marko had said: “At the second run, Lando Norris was instructed not to do Max any favors. Very sporty in the Mercedes squad. “(Quotes from Turkish translated with Google)
Formula 1 F1 – Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy – April 18, 2021 Red Bull’s Max Verstappen celebrates first place with third place, McLaren’s Lando Norris on the podium REUTERS / Guglielmo Mangiapane
But McLaren tried to explain their radio call message as non-malicious after the race. Lando himself had rejected Marko’s claim that
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“So I tried my best to avoid him. I didn’t mean to hinder him or anything. But I didn’t hear or see what was said. I didn’t block him or do anything like that. I’ve never been this close. “
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Well, it didn’t get out of hand in the end. It was just a mental game by Red Bull to put pressure on Mercedes. Although it didn’t work out so well on the track, they’d love to get back on their feet this weekend in Barcelona.
The post WATCH: Norris calls Max Verstappen a “Muppet” in the hilarious Red Bull-McLaren paper airplane war after the Portimao F1 incident first appeared on monter-une-startup.
