Reigning Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has stated that he will not give up easily despite being slammed with a 20-second time penalty in his battle with Lando Norris at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday, Afrosport reports.
The first penalty was due to pushing Norris off after the McLaren driver attempted a bold overtake at the start of the race while the second happened shortly after as Verstappen attempted an aggressive move.
The two penalties dropped Verstappen down to 15th before recovering to finish sixth. Reflecting on the two incidents with Norris, Verstappen said: “I mean the problem is when you’re slower you’re being put in those kind of positions.
“I am not going to give up easily. At the end of the day, it’s not about agreeing or disagreeing about the penalty.
“The only thing is that 20 seconds is quite a lot. The biggest problem of the day and that is also what I worry about is the race pace. It was really not good – something that we need to analyse.
“Even without them penalties, we had no chance at all to fight.”
What a moment in the story of this season’s World Championship 🤯🤯#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/nTZfYjDcMy
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 27, 2024
Verstappen now sits 47 points ahead of Norris who finished second with four rounds to go. The Red Bull driver insists he is not bothered by the gap closing.
“I am not worried,” he added. “This was a really bad day for us but I know we can do much better than this. We just keep going.”
Meanwhile, Norris, reacting on Verstappen’s penalties said: “I think it was a step too far. I think Max will know that, I hope, and then we can go ahead to have some more clean, fair battles because I look forward to them.”
The F1 paddock will next head to Brazil for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix this weekend, a circuit Verstappen has won twice including last year’s race.
