Lando Norris smashed Max Verstappen’s winners trophy on the Hungarian Grand Prix podium. The McLaren star intentionally banged his champagne bottle on the podium but accidentally caused the Red Bull star’s trophy to wobble off the top step and smash on the ground.
Footage on social media showed the ceramic cup banging on the floor as the drivers celebrated. McLaren have since issued an apology to the reigning world champion on social media.
They tweeted: “Sorry Max.” Moments later, Red Bull appeared to confirm Norris’ actions had indeed damaged the trophy. Replying to McLaren’s post, Red Bull remarked: “We can’t take you anywhere glad to have you up there with us though. We’re gonna need some glue.”
Images online showed the base of the trophy had come away with Verstappen holding both pieces as he left the podium. The Hungarian GP winners’ trophies are made of porcelain and fully homemade. They are understood to take around six months to produce at a cost of £34,000 (€40,000) each.
F1 fans clearly saw the funny side as they took to social media to react to the incident. @julianamarie729 commented: “I was wondering if anyone else caught this lol.” While @Ne_li_ma posted: “That’s the most Lando thing that could have happened.”
@nikkitbh added: “It’s okay team, I think Max has enough already.” And @Hannah_curtis98 remarked: “It’s so obvious that was going to happen.”
@graceclare_18 uploaded: “Not them just standing staring at it on the floor.” Meanwhile, @norrisreads feels the FIA need to change the podium policy to prevent another similar incident. She said: “Y’all need to take the trophies away before Lando picks up the champagne.”
Norris did something similar after his last podium finish at the British Grand Prix. The Briton again slammed his champagne bottle on the podium at Silverstone with one of the top-three trophies rolling off the top step.
Norris slipped past Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race in Hungary to clinch a second successive P2 finish. However, the 23-year-old admitted the British manufacturer are still miles away from overthrowing Verstappen and Red Bull.
Norris is still searching for his first F1 victory despite picking up eight top-three finishes in his career. When pushed on whether he could achieve a win this year, Norris explained: “The guys are too quick. Unless they make mistakes or something happens. I think at the minute we are very happy with the progress we have made.
“To go from where we were five races ago, struggling to get out of Q1 sometimes to fighting for poles and podiums. We will take it for now and our time will come later in the year.”
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