We have come across many instances to believe Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are friends. However, in the past few weeks, the Brit has been putting this assumption to the test. Norris has been making statements that would not please his Dutch friend. For starters, Norris made the horrendous mistake of diminishing Verstappen’s 2021 championship glory. For the unaware, Norris, during a live stream, slipped and called Lewis Hamilton an eight-time world champion. Apart from taking the shine away from his 2021 glory, he wanted to do the same with his race win in Monaco as well.
An ecstatic Norris after finishing P9 made a confession in his post-race interview as seen on Twitter. While discussing the performance on intermediate tires after the rain, the Brit felt confident of his pace. This is when he wished Verstappen would’ve gotten a blue flag because of him.
“In the end, yeah, the intermediate pace was probably, I don’t know how true it is but I’d say the quickest on the track. Even quicker than Max. I wanted Max to get blue flags, probably the first time in his life even he would’ve had blue flags. Would have been amazing. So I was really hoping to pass him, just because he would have hated it and I would have loved it. But he was leading the Monaco Grand Prix so I didn’t wanna intrude too much,” Norris confessed.
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For your reference, a blue flag indicates that a faster car is behind a certain to lap them and they need to leave space for the mandatory overtake. This scenario would’ve never come to pass as the Red Bull man leading the race. However, the McLaren man would’ve very much liked to put Verstappen through this set of new emotions.
We can’t comment on their relationship, but with Norris’s comments and Verstappen’s from the past, one can gauge who’s a better friend.
Max Verstappen defends Lando Norris amidst ongoing McLaren misery
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The Brit has been suffering with his car and his team since the start of the season apart from a few bouts of luck on particular tracks. Monaco was one of them. However, the overall outlook toward the team is of failure. Amidst the criticism, Verstappen stood up for his friend and defended him.
The Dutchman said, “Lando knows what he is doing, and that’s a good thing for McLaren. When he first joined Formula 1, he was a bit overwhelmed. Lando can be a bit shy but he’s a super nice guy and you can see, from the first year to now, how he’s grown as a person, and that helps his performance because he’s more confident.”
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WATCH THIS STORY: F1 Stars Max Verstappen & Lando Norris Go Wild With Their Girlfriends in Monaco
Now, we are not making judgments or suggestions, but it seems Verstappen is a better friend to Norris. Or Norris likes to joke around more than Verstappen. Either way, we doubt Norris’ statements will put any dent in their friendship.