F1: Lando Norris, a 40 thousand euro bang

F1: Lando Norris, a 40 thousand euro bang

A 40-thousand-euro bang for Lando Norris: the British driver, on the podium at the Hungarian GP, opened his bottle of sparkling wine inconveniently, slamming the bottom on the podium step and causing Max Verstappen’s delicate trophy to fall to the ground.

The porcelain vase won by the Dutch driver was worth 40 thousand euros and had been handmade in a months-long process. During interviews Verstappen downplayed what happened, taking it ironically, “McLaren has a lot of money that they can invest on personnel, so I’m sure they also have some to repair my trophy.”

Norris jokingly tried to exonerate himself, “I think Max leaned the trophy a little too close to the edge.” On his race he expressed himself in these terms, “I want to thank the fans, it was a tough race and not easy, especially for Checo who was coming to the end, however, he did not have speed to catch me. I am happy, there was a bit of a fight at the beginning in Turn 1, however, it is another podium for McLaren and that is great.”

“The win? If Max pulls out I can think about the win. At the moment he is too fast, unless he makes mistakes it is impossible to compete with him. But we are happy with what we have done, until five races ago we were struggling to qualify for Q2, now we are fighting for pole and podium.”