Lando Norris told to find ‘his own punchline’ after stealing Max Verstappen catchphrase

Max Verstappen vs Lando Norris: F1’s latest big rivalry?

Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle has told Lando Norris to find “his own punchline” after the McLaren driver stole Max Verstappen’s “simply lovely” catchphrase following his Dutch Grand Prix victory.

Norris produced arguably the most complete performance of his F1 career on Sunday at Zandvoort, winning from pole position by 22.8 seconds in what was the biggest margin of victory to date in F1 2024.

Lando Norris ‘simply lovely’ comment catches Martin Brundle’s attention

Additional reporting by Pablo Hidalgo

The McLaren driver’s second career victory ended Verstappen‘s dominance of the Dutch Grand Prix, with the Red Bull driver winning every race at Zandvoort since the legendary circuit returned to the calendar in 2021.

Norris could not resist making a reference to Verstappen after the chequered flag, quipping that his victory was “simply lovely” during his celebrations over team radio.

Verstappen, whose lead over Norris in the Drivers’ standings now stands at 70 points with nine races remaining, has frequently made the comment while collecting wins over recent years.

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Writing in his post-race Sky Sports column, Brundle hailed Norris’s display at Zandvoort as “Verstappen-like” and claimed he took it one step further by mimicking the Red Bull driver over team radio.

He said: “On the slow down lap on the radio he mimicked his mate Max by saying ‘simply lovely.’

“If Lando keeps performing like that he’s going to need his own punchline.”

Brundle went on to describe Norris’s victory as a breakthrough moment, claiming the 24-year-old has now joined the elite group of drivers on the current grid and pointing to his lap for pole position – with an advantage of 0.356 seconds over second-placed Verstappen – as the highlight.

And he believes Norris’s advantage over McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was evidence of the scale of his performance level at Zandvoort.

Piastri could only manage third on the grid, half a second behind his team-mate, after losing tyre temperature on his Q3 outlap while backing off to avoid impeding Pierre Gasly’s Alpine.

The Australian then fell behind the Mercedes of George Russell at the start of the race, ultimately finishing 27 seconds behind Norris after what he described as a “pretty painful race.”

Brundle added: “That was a race which moved Lando Norris up the high Formula 1 ladder a step or two in terms of greatness rankings.

“His pole position effort in qualifying was one of those where-on-earth-did-that-lap-time-come-from moments.

“We know by now just how good Piastri is and that only served to underline how comfortable Norris was in his further upgraded McLaren.”

Brundle’s latest comments come after he aired a theory that Verstappen deliberately eased off during the Dutch Grand Prix in order to send a message and give “a hurry up” to Red Bull to respond to the ever-growing threat posed by McLaren.

Speaking to DAZN Spain after the race, the reigning three-time World Champion confirmed that he did drop his pace – but only in the closing laps when he accepted that victory was out of reach.

Verstappen, who has won just three of the last 10 races, said: “I knew it was completely over with five laps to go so I got off a bit of the throttle to just bring it to the end.

“There was nothing really left to gain. We had to consolidate that P2. It could have been much worse. If being P2 means being sad, I’ll take that.

“I’m not really surprised by what [McLaren] were doing. We just have to do it a little bit better.

“Today again was very difficult. I struggled a lot with the balance and I couldn’t really execute anything it was just not working.

“I tried to do the racing lines that I wanted to do but the car wasn’t responding. Bad tyre wear also. It was a bad feeling. It felt like the car did not react.”

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