{"id":39282,"date":"2025-08-02T05:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/39282\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T05:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T05:45:11","slug":"max-verstappen-caught-throwing-towel-out-of-car-at-speed-while-oscar-piastri-focuses-on-title-fight-with-mclaren-teammate-lando-norris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/39282\/","title":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen caught throwing towel out of car at speed, while Oscar Piastri focuses on title fight with McLaren teammate Lando Norris"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lando Norris<\/a> was fastest in both practice sessions ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix<\/a> as McLaren<\/a> led the way once again. Oscar Piastri<\/a> was next by just .019 of a second in the first practice session and .291 in the second. Charles Leclerc<\/a> was third fastest for Ferrari<\/a> in both sessions. <\/p>\n

However, it was a tough day for Max Verstappen<\/a>, who this week committed to stay with Red Bull<\/a> for 2026. He was ninth in the first session and 14th in the second, and said that piloting his unbalanced car felt like \u201cdriving on ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Worse, Verstappen found himself facing an investigation from the stewards after he found a towel inside his cockpit and threw it out of the car while going at speed. The defending champion and Red Bull were asked to report to the stewards over the incident, but the team was let off with a warning.<\/p>\n

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\"Max<\/p>\n

Max Verstappen finds the towel before tossing it from his car.\u00a0FOX Sports<\/p>\n

Verstappen told stewards the face towel had slipped from his lap and that team officials were unaware it was still in his car when he was sent out on the track.<\/p>\n

“It’s just a towel that you normally wipe your face with when you come back in,” Verstappen later explained.<\/p>\n

“It was still in the car when I went out.<\/p>\n

“Instead of it maybe potentially flying in between my feet, which is the dangerous part, I drove off line, and I got rid of it in the safest way possible.<\/p>\n

“I think the stewards understand that.”<\/p>\n

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso missed the first practice session for treatment on a back injury, before being medically cleared to carry on. Alonso was fifth in the second session, one place behind his teammate Lance Stroll.<\/p>\n

Some Formula 1 races live in the memory because of thrilling action, some for controversy, some even for being so dull they forced a rule change.<\/p>\n

And then there’s Oscar Piastri’s first F1 win, the benchmark for sheer awkwardness.<\/p>\n

Piastri is happy to be back in Hungary this week, but his breakthrough victory there last year remains a lesson for McLaren as it tries to manage his title fight with teammate Lando Norris.<\/p>\n

\"TOWCESTER,<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris of McLaren F1 Team.\u00a0SOPA Images\/LightRocket via Gett<\/p>\n

It’s all the more important now. Piastri has developed into a genuine title contender over the last year and leads Norris by 16 points following his victory in Belgium last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of confidence in myself that I can do it,\u201d the Australian said of his title chances in Hungary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pace in the last few weekends, especially (Belgium), I\u2019ve been very confident in and very proud of. I\u2019m more than capable of continuing that for the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

McLaren can reach some milestones this weekend, with a potential 200th win in F1 for the team. It could also be Piastri and Norris’ fourth one-two finish in a row, a feat McLaren last managed in 1988.<\/p>\n

Piastri took the win last year in Hungary, but only after McLaren had to plead over the radio with Norris to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d and let Piastri past, something the British driver was reluctant to do.<\/p>\n

Piastri had been leading, but McLaren’s pit strategy \u2014 which would normally favour the leader \u2014 had put Norris ahead. Piastri thinks the team can still take positives from that situation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri leading Lando Norris.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it underlined the good nature in the team. It was obviously a slightly awkward situation, but it highlighted that we will do the right thing in all circumstances – well, ideally all circumstances – when we\u2019re on track,\u201d Piastri said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt showed the trust that we have with the team and with each other as well, that things will be put the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

F1 has a history of title fights turning team relationships sour \u2014 not least at McLaren with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost over 30 years ago \u2014 but Piastri and Norris have kept their rivalry friendly. Even so, there\u2019s been a collision in Canada, a near-miss in Austria and Piastri’s rejected request for Norris to give up the lead in Britain.<\/p>\n

Piastri said one factor preventing his relationship with Norris from deteriorating is that both are committed to keeping McLaren on top in F1 for \u201cmany years to come\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all seen how it can go wrong, but we have a lot of reasons to push for it to not go wrong,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lando Norris was fastest in both practice sessions ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix as McLaren led the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-39282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}