Lando Norris was left fuming with Max Verstappen before the Las Vegas Grand Prix had even started, as he accused his title rival of ‘taking the p***’ on the formation lap

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Lando Norris was not happy with Max Verstappen before the Las Vegas Grand Prix over the weekend(Image: Glenn Dunbar, LAT Imagesvia Getty Images)

Lando Norris slammed Max Verstappen for “taking the p***” before the Las Vegas Grand Prix had even got underway. The championship leader was fuming with how his Red Bull rival was behaving during the formation lap.

Team radio from the McLaren driver reveals what was going through his mind as all cars approached the grid. Norris fumed: “He’s taking the p*** with how big a gap he’s leaving. It’s way over the allowance.” His team responded: “We see that, Lando.”

Norris raged on: “Come on! He’s just taking the p*** here. You can’t do this. It’s ten car lengths, no?” McLaren again replied: “We see that Lando.”

The rulebook doesn’t specify exactly how many car lengths are necessary on the lap. Instead, they loosely state that “the formation must be kept as tight as possible.” Safety car conditions are when drivers can be “no more than ten car lengths apart.”

Norris notably performed two fewer burnouts than the five Verstappen executed at the conclusion of the formation lap. Drivers received orders to spin their tyres additional times due to the cool nighttime conditions in Las Vegas.

The race then kicked off with Verstappen securing a superior start to Norris. He passed his championship opponent when the Brit braked too deeply approaching the opening corner.

Norris admitted afterwards: “I messed up turn one – it was pretty poor from me. I braked too late. So yeah, it was all on me; pretty poor from myself.”

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F1 star Lando Norris had a weekend to forget in Las Vegas(Image: Getty Images)

McLaren team principal Andre Stella has hinted that Norris was annoyed by Verstappen’s actions, revealing: “Instinctively, actually, I thought at the pit wall to tell Will to say like, ‘Tell him to stay calm’, but we don’t know whether that was an influence or not.”

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko claims McLaren told Norris to attack and overtake Verstappen when they said: “we’re going to get Max.” Marko told Sky Germany: “He [Verstappen] was able to easily maintain the pace of those behind him and therefore save the tyres.

“We also stayed out longer than everyone else. Of course, we knew the condition of the competitors’ tyres, and the funniest thing was the message that came from McLaren: ‘Attack Max, overtake him.’

“And then he hammered in one fastest lap after another, just to make things clear. But he did it with such confidence and ease.

“We had no problems at all. Lando had some issues at the end, because he was two or three seconds slower. Unfortunately, there was no one there who could capitalise on that.

“But from the first lap… I wouldn’t say [Max] won the start. He won the first corner and practically forced Norris into the mistake.”