Joel Embiid Frustrated With FIA as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris Take Each Other Out

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris ended up taking each other out from the race lead during their heated battle in the closing stages of the Austrian Grand Prix. It was George Russell who picked up the pieces and scored his second career win. However, NBA player, Joel Embiid thinks that it was the fault of the race stewards that led to the collision.

The Austrian Grand Prix was largely a dull affair at the front as Verstappen was looking set to score another race victory with Norris a bit behind in 2nd. However, a slower second pitstop for the Dutchman allowed Norris to close the gap and get on his gearbox, just like he did in Imola.

In his initial attempts to overtake Verstappen, the Briton forced him to go off track mainly at turn 3. However, there was no initial reaction from the race stewards, which allowed Norris to keep attacking the three-time champion, which ultimately led to their big collision at the same corner.

The stewards eventually gave a five-second penalty to Norris for multiple track limit violations, which came a bit too late according to Joel. He took to Twitter (now X) to voice his frustration towards the stewards and perhaps believes that had Norris got the penalty earlier, the #4 driver wouldn’t have been so aggressive with trying to overtake for the lead and may have settled down for second.

“It’s the stewards’ fault for that collision. They took way too much time to give Norris the penalty,” wrote the Cameroonian-American basketball player.

The collision led to punctures for both Verstappen and Norris. However, it cost the British driver much more as he had to retire from the race while the Dutchman could continue the race and salvage a fifth-place finish.

F1 Fans left confused by Joel Embiid’s tweet on Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ crash

While Joel thinks that the race stewards were responsible for Verstappen and Norris’ collision, fans were not able to follow his thoughts all that well as shown by their comments.

One fan agreed with Joel saying that he is spitting facts despite not being able to fully understand the context behind his tweet.

Another said that Norris would still have tried to overtake to try to build a five-second advantage over Verstappen to take the win.

Some believed that Verstappen should have been given the penalty for moving too much under the braking zone. Eventually, the Dutchman did get a 10-second penalty for his crash with Norris, however, that did not affect either of their races.

Whether or not it was the stewards’ fault, this incident will surely make a big dent in the friendship of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.