Christian Horner doesn’t assume “arduous racer” Max Verstappen deserved a penalty for his dramatic collision with Lando Norris on the Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen and Norris collided whereas preventing for the lead, with contact leaving each drivers with a broken automobile.

Editor’s Picks

2 Associated

The stewards discovered Verstappen “predominantly” in charge and issued him a 10-second time penalty.

“I believe Max is a tough racer, they usually know that,” Horner stated, earlier than declaring the combat between Verstappen and Norris at the beginning of Saturday’s dash race.

“I believe Lando was attempting to make up for yesterday. It was inevitable that you would see this constructing maybe for a few races. In some unspecified time in the future, there was going to be one thing shut between the 2 of them.”

Verstappen completed fifth, which was not impacted by the penalty.

Horner felt Norris was pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable as a result of he had a time penalty of his personal incoming for exceeding monitor limits too many occasions in the course of the laps main as much as the incident.

“I believe it is inevitable they have been [going to clash] how shut they have been racing the previous couple of weeks. It is a disgrace. Lando was already on 4 strikes. I believe he was in all probability going to get a five-second penalty anyway. And I might say it was a racing incident.

“I assumed it was a bit harsh that Max received a 10-second penalty. Fortunately it did not have an effect on his race had already been broken by the puncture that he picked up. So very irritating. However on a day that neither of his predominant opponents scored, we nonetheless took residence 10 factors within the drivers’, 16 within the constructors’, and I believe McLaren solely gained two factors on us.”

The incident will dominate the build-up to the British Grand Prix this weekend.

On Sunday night, Norris stated he would lose respect for Verstappen if the Dutchman refused to take accountability for the conflict.

Requested whether or not Norris and Verstappen’s friendship may survive the incident, Horner stated: “Possibly they will not play padel tomorrow, however I am positive they’re going to speak about it. They’re two arduous racers, they’re going to speak about issues brazenly, I’ve received little doubt about that.”

Horner then joked about Silverstone boss Stuart Pringle not too long ago saying Verstappen’s dominance was hindering the circuit from promoting all its tickets for this 12 months’s race.

On the finish of his session, Horner stated: “I believe the British Grand Prix is ready to be a continuation of the theme that we have seen the previous couple of races.

“If they cannot promote tickets now, then they’re correctly within the s—!”