Max Verstappen has developed a reputation for being an incredibly tough racer during his time in Formula 1 and he showed why during the start of the 2025 Miami Grand Prix as he clashed with Lando Norris.
The Red Bull driver started the race on pole position and seemed to have covered off the advances of McLaren driver Norris into the first corner, but a lockup allowed Norris to get alongside the Red Bull into Turn 2. Norris may have then expected to be given more space by Verstappen than he was and he ended up off of the track briefly.
That saw him drop to P6 and it ultimately cost him a chance at competing properly with teammate Oscar Piastri as the race developed. Norris and Verstappen also had a spell of exchanging positions slightly later in the Miami race, with neither driver keen to give the other too much respect.
Norris was able to take a lot of time out of Piastri‘s lead once he got into P2, with the gap dropping to 3.5 seconds with a handful of laps to go. Ultimately, though, Piastri had the situation in hand and he now leads the Drivers’ Championship by 16 points from Norris.
Norris’ experience of battling Verstappen
It was decided by the stewards that Verstappen did not deserve any punishment for the initial incident on Lap 1, and then Norris did some self-policing when he passed Verstappen with all four wheels off of the track. The McLaren man let Verstappen past on the back straight before being told to do so by the team, which allowed him to keep the pressure on and eventually make it past legitimately.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, Norris was fairly blunt when explaining what it is like to race wheel-to-wheel with the four-time world champion.
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“It’s never the best feeling but the team have done an amazing job, so I can’t fault them at all. Good pit stops, great pace, we were up the road. It was a good feeling but Oscar drove well,” Norris began.
“Max put up a good fight as always and I paid the price, but it’s the way it is. What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain, so you can’t win.
“But it is the way it is with Max, it’s crash or don’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today, but I’m still happy with second.”
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella also spoke to Sky and actually admitted that he thinks Norris should have lifted before the Turn 1 incident.
“The first lap, with hindsight, it would have potentially wiser for Lando to lift and accept he would have gained the lead later on in the race because the car was fast enough but that’s with the benefit of hindsight,” Stella said.
