Home

F1

Following Esports Controversy, Lando Norris Takes to Instagram to Vent His Anger

Published 05/03/2020, 10:56 AM EDT

Follow Us

McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris says Simon Pagenaud was “a bit salty” for not letting him win a virtual IndyCar race after the pair collided in the event.

Making his subsequent race excursion in IndyCar’s iRacing Challenge in the wake of winning on his 1st race at the Circuit of the Americas, Norris was leading the race with two laps to go during an accident stricken race at the Brickyard when he hit a slow-moving Pagenaud.

Ruling Indianapolis 500 champ Pagenaud was heard saying “we take Lando out, let’s do it” on his live-stream. It happened only minutes before the impact between the pair.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

The accident wasn’t as honest as it appears to be. However, Pagenaud conceded on his video feed that he was wanting to “take Lando out“.

Lando Norris later uncovered that Pagenaud had apologized to him. The McLaren driver was obviously not happy with the unsporting move from the Frenchman.

Lando Norris isn’t happy with Simon’s approach

Lando Norris and his McLaren Formula 1 team principal Zak Brown have responded to the stream where ruling Indianapolis 500 victor Simon Pagenaud says “we take out Lando“. Lando said Pagenaud had got “a bit salty that a non-IndyCar driver is about to win an Indycar race”.

Indeed, even Norris’ McLaren group head, Zak Brown voices his disappointment: “Not what you expect from a champion” he says. Lando Norris even talked about the mishap with Simon after the race.

Trending

Get instantly notified of the hottest F1 stories via Google! Click on Follow Us and Tap the Blue Star.

Follow Us

He said he wanted to come into the pits. He wanted to slow me up and he wanted Askew to win,” said Norris. “He didn’t want me to win so he tried slowing me up a little bit and he was going to come in the pits but then.

“He had no intention of taking me out, so, he just wanted to slow me down a little bit by lifting off in the middle of the corner and then braking right in front of me.”

At that point, Lando had not seen the twitch stream of Simon. After watching more clips of the accident, Norris said: “What a loser” to Simon.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

 

 

 

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

 

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Abhay Aggarwal

421Articles

One take at a time

Abhay Aggarwal is sports analyst at EssentiallySports. Having joined ES in early 2020, he has over 300 NASCAR, Formula 1, and Tennis articles to his name. Abhay has been an avid motorsports fan for over a decade, and he even attended the inaugural Indian Grand Prix in 2011.
Show More>