"What's this idiot doing?": Lando Norris rages at Max Verstappen for his first lap maneouvre

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris started alongside each other on the front row, and the two had a small incident heading into turn one. The Brit had to mow his way through the grass on the inside of the track on the frontstretch, leading him to condemn the reigning champion's move over the radio with some strong words.

Verstappen and Norris have had a history of racing each other for the final bit of tarmac when they were championship contenders last year. Though they have not had such major incidents during the 2025 season, owing to Red Bull not often being at par with McLaren, the Italian GP this year was a bit different.

After qualifying on pole, the Dutchman aimed at defending his lead heading into turn one. But, having Norris alongside him, he had to cut a corner to maintain his advantage, leaving the McLaren driver infuriated, who shared an anger-charged message over the radio:

"Yeah, what the... What's this idiot doing? Come on. He's put me in the grass and then he's just cut the corner."

On the other hand, Max Verstappen accused Norris of intentionally letting go of the brakes to dive into the corner, as he said over the radio:

"He let the brakes go, mate. On purpose."

However, the Red Bull pitwall advised Verstappen to let Norris through in the following laps to avoid a time penalty for the reigning champion that could hamper his race plan down the road.

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Lando Norris was surprised by Max Verstappen and Red Bull's resurgence at the Italian GP

Lando Norris (L) and Max Verstappen (R) after the qualifying for the 2025 F1 Grand Prix of Italy - Source: Getty

The McLaren drivers were regarded as the favourites to take the pole position at the Italian GP. However, Max Verstappen's stellar lap saw the papaya duo scratching their heads at where the Dutchman pulled out such a laptime.

Sharing his thoughts on how Red Bull has improved within a span of 12 months at Monza, Lando Norris said during the post-qualifying press conference:

"When you look at previous races, even when we’ve been incredible in weekends, there have been plenty where Max has beaten us in a fair few races this season. He qualified ahead in many races this season."

"The real surprise is compared to last year. But at the same time, when you have a strong team that have won for many years, the drivers and just a strong team in general, you expect them to improve like they’ve done from last year and also from their difficulties at the beginning of the season to where they are now. So, not a surprise, but to improve so much from where they were here last year is credit to them."

Meanwhile, despite allowing Norris to retake the lead, Verstappen was able to overtake the Briton fair and square on lap four of the Italian GP.