Max Verstappen ‘taking the p*ss’ as untelevised Lando Norris team radio emerges
Lando Norris and Max Verstappen are separated by 24 points entering the final two races of 2025
Untelevised team radio footage from the Las Vegas Grand Prix has revealed the moment Lando Norris accused Max Verstappen of “taking the p*ss” on the formation lap.
It came just moments before Norris ran wide at the first corner after an aggressive defensive move, gifting the lead to the Red Bull driver in the process.
Lando Norris: Max Verstappen ‘taking the p*ss’ on Las Vegas GP formation lap
Verstappen collected his sixth victory of the F1 2025 season in Las Vegas to shrink Norris’s lead at the top of the drivers’ standings to 24 points with two rounds remaining in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Norris originally finished second on the road in Nevada, but found himself disqualified – along with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri – for excessive skid-block wear.
Norris lost the lead to Verstappen at the first corner of the race having swiped across the track to defend from the fast-starting Red Bull off the line.
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However, that left him on the dirty side of the track, and with too acute an angle to make corner, as he braked for Turn 1, with Verstappen slipping past as Norris ran wide.
And an untelevised snippet of team radio has shed more light on how Verstappen got inside Norris’s head on the approach to the grid, with the McLaren driver left flustered by the Red Bull’s approach to the formation lap.
With cold temperatures in Las Vegas, drivers were requested to perform as many as five burnouts at the end of the formation lap to generate rear-tyre temperature and boost their chances of an effective launch.
While Verstappen completed five burnouts, Norris completed only three – none as aggressive as the Red Bull – as he became preoccupied with the gap his rival was leaving to the polesitter.
Although drivers must be ‘no more than 10 car lengths apart’ under safety car conditions, the sporting regulations state only that ‘the formation must be kept as tight as possible’ on the lap to the grid.
Norris was heard reporting Verstappen’s approach to the formation lap to his McLaren team over team radio, claiming his rival was “way over” the permitted allowance of 10 car lengths.
The full exchange went as follows:
Norris: “Yeah, he’s taking the p*ss with how big of a gap he’s leaving. It’s way over the allowed allowance.”
McLaren: “Yeah, we see that Lando.”
Norris: “Yeah. Come on! He’s just taking the p*ss here. You can’t do this. It’s 10 car lengths, no?”
McLaren: “Yeah, we see that Lando.”
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With his five burnouts completed, Verstappen went on to have a better start than Norris, who swiped towards the pit wall in an attempt to cut off the Red Bull before running wide at Turn 1.
Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who joined his driver on the podium for the first time since the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix in Las Vegas, was heard congratulating the four-time world champion for his handling of Norris’s aggressive move off the line.
Lambiase said: “Good job, Max.
“You kept it calm. Kept your head.”
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