Lando Norris cannot seem to get the Red Bulls out of his sight as he had another close moment with one of them during the first British Grand Prix practice session. However, on this occasion, it was not Max Verstappen but rather it was their junior driver Isack Hadjar. While Verstappen has not publicly apologized to Norris for their incident last week in Austria, Hadjar was quick to accept his mistake.
The 19-year-old raised his hand to Norris and said on the radio, “Sorry man. I couldn’t see him”. Hadjar apologized for impeding the Briton, who was on a flying lap. The stewards took note of the incident and will investigate it after the session.
The stewards have penalized Red Bull with a fine of €20,000 ($21,870) and given Hadjar a formal warning. Precisely so, as the video below seems to suggest that had Norris not braked in time, he would have most likely collected Hadjar and that could have been a nasty crash. However, fortunately for both drivers, Norris managed to brake in time and had a massive lock-up.
#BritishGP: Norris nearly goes into the back of Hadjar! #F1 #Formula1 #McLarenF1 #RedBullRacing pic.twitter.com/gVXrJwsBe3
— ️ (@plutoformula1) July 5, 2024
Although Hadjar is not one of Norris’ rivals this season, McLaren are yet likely to be frustrated since the French-Algerian racer is driving a Red Bull, who have had a tense relationship with the Woking-based outfit recently.
Tensions are at an all-time high between McLaren’s Norris and Red Bull’s Verstappen
With Verstappen and Norris colliding at last weekend’s Austrian GP, tensions are at an all-time high between them. Although both drivers claimed that they have sorted out their concerns, the tensions could again rise to the fore if the two have any sort of incident this weekend as well.
When it comes to last weekend, both drivers were fighting for the lead and barely gave any space to the other. Although their colliding seemed inevitable considering how close they came on the track, none were ready to accept the blame for it.
Instead, Norris went to the extent of stating that if Verstappen didn’t apologize to him, then he would lose immense respect for the Dutchman and would even question his friendship with the Red Bull driver. On the other hand, Verstappen was adamant that he did not do anything wrong and that it was Norris who threw multiple dive bombs at him.
Considering that both drivers have claimed that they have sorted out their differences and that any attacks they made were in the heat of the moment, it would be interesting to see how they compete against each other this weekend at Silverstone.
