Eddie Jordan explains why Lando Norris was in the wrong against Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen was ‘predominantly at fault’ for his Austrian GP crash with Lando Norris

Eddie Jordan has defended Max Verstappen in his clash with Lando Norris in Austria, after all road rules say the “person in the front has the right of way”.

Verstappen and Norris collided at the Austrian Grand Prix when, on lap 64, Norris tried to pass Verstappen around the outside through the braking zone of Turn 3.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris crashed on lap 64 in Austria

Verstappen defended his lead by moving to the left to block Norris, but that ultimately resulted in contact between the protagonists who both suffered rear-wheel punctures.

Verstappen was ruled to have been “predominantly” to blame and was hit with a 10-second time penalty by the stewards, although that had no barring on his fifth-placed finish.

As for Norris, the McLaren driver retired his car and walked away from the Grand Prix trailing Verstappen by 81 points in the Drivers’ Championship.

The stewards weren’t the only ones to blame Verstappen with McLaren going as far as to tweet analysis from ‘expert pundit Anthony Davidson’ to support their belief Verstappen was wholly in the wrong.

However, former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan disagrees.

The latest reaction to the Max Verstappen v Lando Norris clash

McLaren add more fuel to Max Verstappen fire with rare social media post

Helmut Marko blasts ‘pathetic’ Lando Norris as Verstappen takes jet without him

“Max is a fighter, he’s a bear,” Jordan said on the Formula For Success podcast. “And before you get into the ring with a bear make sure you’re prepared for it.

“To go one side than the other side, and then play this… The actual incident itself could’ve been so easily avoided.

“When you are defending, and you’re in the lead, it’s no different to the road rules – the person in the front has the right of way.

“He’s propelled himself to the front, either through qualifying or guile or racing speed or whatever. He’s leading the Grand Prix.

“The guy behind has to find a way around it.”

Jordan’s comment comes on the back of Helmut Marko saying “Norris was more likely to have overstepped the mark” while Christian Horner felt the Mclaren driver was “getting his elbows out”,

He added to the media including PlanetF1.com: “It was two tough races [in Austria]. It’s probably a bit of a hangover from [the Sprint race].

“Max passed him without DRS into Turn 4 and then he got mugged by his team-mate, so there was probably a little bit of a hangover of that.”

Read next: Revealed: The telemetry data behind another Max Verstappen v Lando Norris incident