Red Bull Defends Giving up Position to Lando Norris After Max Verstappen Turn 1 Incident at Italian GP

The start to the Italian GP was bound to be chaotic as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris shared the front row. Norris had a better reaction to the lights going out, but pushed his car too hard and went off track on the main straight. Meanwhile, Verstappen tried to hold his lead but had to cut the first corner to maintain his position. The Dutchman was then informed by Red Bull to give the position back, which, in hindsight, was a great call.

Lando Norris was quick to comment on the Turn 1 incident and call Max Verstappen an ‘idiot’ for his antics. Meanwhile, the FIA had launched an investigation into the matter. However, Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, commanded him to give the position back and give it his all on the track later. The governing body immediately canceled the investigation and let the two drivers fight on track.

Max Verstappen overtook Lando Norris with ease in a couple of laps and held onto his lead to ultimately win the Italian GP. As such, it was definitely a sane and logical call by Red Bull as it saved the team from a lot of trouble afterwards. Red Bull boss Laurent Mekies reckoned that the team could have thrown away their winning chances by giving up the position, but he believed that giving up the position was the right call to avoid risking a penalty.

So it may as well be your win getting away from you, but nonetheless, it was felt that we should give the position back and not risk a penalty.

Laurent Mekies said, as reported by RacingNews365.com

As depicted by the events, Max Verstappen quickly regained the lead of the race and put forth a record-breaking performance on the way. Hence, Laurent Mekies applauded Verstappen’s ‘unbelieveable’ attack on Lando Norris just a few laps after giving up the lead. Mekies recalled that the decision to give up the position put the team’s mind at ease after a few laps.

That’s what we have done, Max was unbelievable in being able to attack Lando back and pass him, and as it turned out, put our mind at ease after a few laps.

Laurent Mekies added

Laurent Mekies applauds Red Bull for Max Verstappen’s Italian GP triumph

Max Verstappen’s win at the Italian GP has helped him a lot in his championship ambitions this year, as he walked out of the race weekend with some great positive feelings. Although Verstappen doesn’t believe that the team is back to their winning ways yet, he is still positive than before. As such, Laurent Mekies applauded the team and their good job at Monza, which helped them achieve great results.