Lando Norris admits he ‘messed it up like an amateur’ in Max Verstappen F1 sprint battle

Lando Norris was left to rue his weak defence against Max Verstappen in the F1 sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Norris demonstrated great pace in the early laps, pressing Verstappen for the lead of the race.

The McLaren driver made his move into Turn 3, pulling off an ambitious divebomb.

However, Norris left the inside line open into Turn 4, allowing Verstappen to come back down the inside.

Norris’ poor defence allowed Oscar Piastri to get through.

Verstappen ultimately dropped them both to storm to his 10th sprint race victory.

Reflecting on his battle with Verstappen, Norris conceded that there’s things to “improve” when battling wheel-to-wheel.

“I think a little bit like I saw at the end, I think once things settle in too much, it’s difficult, once the tyres get too hot, it’s difficult to do too much,” he said.

“I had to make the most of my opportunity. Then I messed it up and left the door open like an amateur! So like I said, some things to improve, but we’re there and we can definitely give them a fight tomorrow.”

It was another great day for McLaren as they closed the gap on Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.

“I mean a good race, a good race between us, especially with Max at the beginning was good fun,” he added. “Yeah. Probably some things I definitely should have done a bit better in my battle, but I understand that.

“The pace of the car was very strong, especially the end of the race, and I had a good battle trying to get past Oscar, but just didn’t have the speed, how much you lose in the middle sector with the dirty air. It was a good race, a good load of points for McLaren, so a good job to the team, and of course to Max and Oscar for the

Norris doubts that even if he got back ahead of Piastri, he’d have been able to get past Verstappen again

“I don’t think so, honestly,” he explained. “Like there we’re fair to race. It was just too difficult to get past.

“The pace was good. I don’t think we’d have had the pace to go with Max. I think he was that little bit too quick today. But tomorrow’s another day, and we’ll try again.”