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Lando Norris Laughs Off Helmut Marko’s Accusations of McLaren Helping Mercedes F1 Fight Max Verstappen

Published 05/04/2021, 8:26 AM EDT

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via Reuters

Lando Norris is enjoying his best start to a Formula 1 season ever. To add to his P4 (Bahrain) and P3 (Imola) finishes, he claimed another top-five finish at the Portuguese Grand Prix last weekend. While the Briton did not have the best time during practice, he pushed hard during qualifying to ensure a good start to the race.

When Max Verstappen approaching Norris during the former’s flying lap, McLaren asked their driver to not do any favors for the Red Bull driver. However, Norris got well out of the Dutchman’s way and caused him no problem.

The Woking outfit’s radio call did not impress Helmut Marko; he called McLaren and Mercedes out for collusion, stating that they were collectively trying to make things difficult for Verstappen.

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In a recent interview, Lando Norris stated that he found the Red Bull Supremo’s comments hilarious.

via Reuters

Norris explained, “I saw these comments, I found them pretty funny. For some reason, he blamed it on Mercedes. So I got no clue what he’s talking about. Why would Mercedes have anything to do with it?”

McLaren: That’s One of the Reasons Why Lando Norris Is So Popular

Lando Norris clarified he did nothing wrong

Even though McLaren asked Norris to not do any Verstappen favors, he got out of the way when the Red Bull approached. The Briton stands by his acts and believes that the Austrian team could be feeling this way because they couldn’t qualify ahead of the Silver Arrows.

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via Reuters

He said, “I think he was obviously a bit annoyed that a Mercedes qualified ahead of them. Any team boss isn’t going be happy with that. So maybe they’ve just been blindsided, not looking at that. But yeah, I did nothing wrong.”

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To be fair, Norris has everything right so far this season. He qualified for Portuguese GP in P7 and claimed a P5 finish. The McLaren driver has finished in the top-five for all the races and is currently at the P3 position on the driver’s championship.

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He has grown as a driver and his confidence is at an all-time high. He hopes to continue the good run and score some important points in the upcoming Spanish Grand Prix as well.

Do you think the Briton can claim another podium next race weekend?

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Written by:

Ayush Manjunath

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Ayush Manjunath is a Formula 1 author for EssentiallySports with more than 500 articles to his name. A Law graduate and a current Sports Management student, Ayush also has a certificate from UCLA on Sports, Media and Entertainment Management. He has an undying love for motorsports and lives to see Max Verstappen, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, and Lando Norris battle for the championship one day!
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