Verstappen's 'unbelievable weekend', Norris laughs awkwardly at team orders
Max Verstappen won the 2025 Italian Grand Prix, a race weekend the Dutchman labeled as 'unbelievable', as P2 and P3 placed drivers and title contenders Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri addressed the McLaren orchestrated position swap.
Verstappen praises Red Bull after dominant Monza showing
In parc fermé, following the race, Verstappen reacted with great happiness to his unexpected race win.
"It was a great day for us. Lap 1 was a bit unlucky but after that we were flying," the reigning world champion began, before assesing his team's performance.
"The car was really enjoyable. I could manage the pace quite well throughout that first stint and we pitted at the right time.
"With the hard tyres at the end, you can push a bit more, it's more resilient.
"Fantastic execution by everyone by the whole team. The whole weekend, we were on it.
"It's super enjoyable to win here," he added after taking his third win of the season.
After lap 6 the Dutchman already held a 3.4 second lead over Norris, which only grew as the laps were ticked off one at a time. At the flag Verstappen held a lead over Norris of over 19 seconds.
"I could see the pace was good, I just needed to settle in. I could see the pace was there and quite quickly we were back in the lead.
"This was an unbelievable weekend," he concluded.
Norris awkwardly laughs after pitstop question
For Norris it was a positive result coming off the back of his Dutch Grand Prix DNF.
At the start of the race though, things got a bit heated as he took to the grass whilst fighting Verstappen for the lead, which Norris would take following Red Bull's instructions to the Dutch world champion to give the position to the Brit to counter any possibilities of taking a penalty after cutting the first chicane to stay ahead of the McLaren driver.
"I always know it's going to be a good fight with Max and it was (at the start)," Norris said.
"So, enjoyable but just not the speed today of Max and the Red Bull."
Regarding the race itself Norris observed: "A tricky one, one of the first few weekends where we're just a bit slower. But still fun, still a good race so I enjoyed it.
When asked about the slow pit stop that resulted in Piastri overtaking him and the subsequent team orders issued by McLaren, Norris laughed awkwardly before stating: "No idea [what happened with the pit stop].
"I felt like I was there quite a long time. Every now and then we make mistakes as a team and today was one of them."
Norris finished a long way off Verstappen after McLaren gambled on banking on a race neutralisation to try and snatch the race win from the Red Bull Racing driver.
"I did everything I could today, I couldn't do a lot more. I tried to fight against Max. We had a good race and he came out on top.
"Second was our best result and I need to keep up what I'm doing."
Piastri: McLaren team order decision, just an 'incident'
At the start of the race Piastri was involved in a handful of laps long fray with Charles Leclerc for P3, which set him up for a rather lonely race, he admits.
"A difficult beginning Maybe not my best first couple of laps. We seemed to have pretty good pace compared to Charles, then I had to get past and it was a pretty lonely race from there.
"Just struggled a bit through the first part of the race. The car wasn't exactly how I liked.
"Once the tyres went away, it felt a bit better which is never a great sign. Happy with the points and I will take it."
Responding to a McLaren team order related probe, the Aussie took it in strides simply stating humorously: "A little inschident at the end but it's OK!"
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