Lando Norris on Max Verstappen after Lap 1 fight: 'You can't push people into the dirt'

Lando Norris has questioned Max Verstappen’s over-aggressive defensive tactics on the opening lap of the Italian Grand Prix.

Norris made a slightly better start than Verstappen off the line at Monza.

However, Norris was forced onto the grass on the right-hand side of the track.

Norris remained committed on the brakes, forcing Verstappen to cut the corner.

As Norris had made the apex first, Red Bull ordered Verstappen to relinquish the race lead at the start of Lap 2.

Norris’ impressive start was in vain as Red Bull were too quick.

Verstappen overtook Norris at Turn 1 on Lap 4 before opening up a six-second lead.

The four-time world champion would win his third race of the season - his first since Imola back in May.

Reflecting on his battle with Verstappen at the start, Norris felt it was wrong that he was pushed “into the dirt”.

“Well all four of my wheels weren’t on the track so I will take it as a no. I expect it to be like this in a way,” Norris told Sky Sports.

“I expect a tough, on the limit-ish defence. I don’t think you can push people into the dirt. He knew I was alongside from the very beginning. I had a better run.

“You can easily call it racing in the end but you also can’t push people off the track. I braked later into Turn 1, I committed a bit more. I just made the corner and I fought well on the first lap.

“My first lap, my Turn 1, was still very strong. Even today, I feel I did everything I could. I just didn’t have the pace. It felt like a good start and I gave myself those opportunities but we were just too slow. That was clear today. Unfortunate but that’s life.”

Verstappen resurgence “could be good” for title fight

With Verstappen taking the victory, Norris could only reduce Oscar Piastri's points lead by three points.

Norris sees having Verstappen in the fight again as potentially an advantage.

“I wouldn’t say so. In a way, it could be a good thing,” Norris added.

“I’ve got to use it to my advantage. Certainly today wasn’t to my advantage just because he took a lot of points away if it was a first and second. The main thing is we were just too slow today.

“We couldn’t fight for a win. He was way too quick for us. There’s things we need to improve, things that we have to work on. Disappointing. It’s not often we’ve been able to say that this year. It shows that others are there as much as they want to complain every single weekend.

“We still get beaten quite a lot. More than we would like as much as we’re dominant in many cases. We’re still beatable and we don’t like that. Maybe others do.

“It shows we’re beatable and we have things that we have to work on. We can’t be too satisfied with our job because we wanted to win today. It’s a cool place to win and we didn’t. I wanted to stand on that top step in front of the Tifosi. Today was not the day. I have to wait another year.”