F1 champion throws shade at Max Verstappen with British Grand Prix retirement joke

Max Verstappen

F1 champion throws shade at Max Verstappen with British Grand Prix retirement joke

Lando Norris finished fourth at the British Grand Prix

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 12 July 2026 16:44

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F1 world champion Lando Norris cheekily hinted that his own Silverstone stand played its part in Max Verstappen's British Grand Prix crash.

Four-time world champion Verstappen crashed out of last weekend's British Grand Prix at Stowe, after a huge snap of oversteer caused his car to venture off into the gravel.

It came to a stop right in front of the bright yellow Landostand, a new grandstand at Silverstone which celebrates British driver Norris and can fit 16,000 fans in.

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Verstappen's crash was not caused by driver error, with the Dutchman and his boss revealing that it was a fault on the RB22 which prevented the rear wing from closing properly heading into the high speed Stowe Corner.

The RB22's 'maxarena' rear wing suffered a fault coming out of straight mode, in a similar incident to what Verstappen also experienced during Austrian Grand Prix qualifying.

But that doesn't seem to matter to Norris, who joked at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that it was his stand that had put the drivers off.

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Did Norris' colourful stand put off Verstappen?

Talking to fans at Goodwood about his new Landostand, Norris said: "I got to put in some good results, a podium on Saturday and a P4 on Sunday.

"I'm happy-ish that it distracted some drivers as well so it was perfect."

Norris is at Goodwood this weekend - one of two F1 world champions to be present at the iconic event - and was exalted on the balcony of the Goodwood Estate.

Norris also took on the mighty Goodwood hillclimb, driving both his own 2023 F1 car in which he claimed seven grand prix podiums, as well as McLaren's new hypercar, the MCL-HY.

McLaren have produced the hypercar in time for an entry into the pro class of the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans race in 2027.