'Absolute crap': Teammate fumes over Daniel Ricciardo 'nonsense'
McLaren's Lando Norris has angrily hit back at suggestions he targeted teammate Daniel Ricciardo in a controversial incident at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Norris stormed to third place for his second podium finish of the season, while Ricciardo ended up in a lowly 12th place.
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Ricciardo also suffered the ultimate humiliation of being lapped by his McLaren teammate to complete his nightmare weekend in Monaco.
And to make matters worse for the Aussie driver, Norris was spotted shooting his teammate a cheeky wave as he moved past him.
“I have a tear in my eye here for Daniel Ricciardo,” Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle said.
“That’s an ouch moment isn’t it. It hurts for Daniel Ricciardo.”
The incident didn't go unnoticed by fans who took to social media to insist Norris' gesture rubbed salt into the wounds for Ricciardo.
However, the Brit has now fired back at suggestions he was poking fun at the Aussie, insisting such claims from F1 fans are "absolute crap".
The incident in question saw Ricciardo shown the blue flag, forcing the Aussie to let Norris pass him.
The 21-year-old Brit insists the wave to his teammate was a sign of courtesy and nothing more.
“Alright, so I see so many of you make up absolute c**p and nonsense as usual," Norris said on Twitch.
“By the way, any time someone lets me pass for a blue flag, anyone, if they get out of the way properly and they should, I put my hand up and say thanks, alright?”
Norris went on to explain that he did the same thing by politely waving to other back-markers, including Haas duo Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher.
“I did it to freaking everyone; Mazepin, Schumacher, Danny...
"Whoever I passed and they got out of the way, I put my hand up and say thanks.
“So, don’t just notice one when I passed Danny and think I’m doing something that is not right.
"Let me just get that point across because I see a lot of stories that people make up.”
A 'weekend to forget' for Ricciardo
Norris currently sits third in the driver's standings behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Mercedes' reigning world champion, Lewis Hamilton.
Ricciardo - by contrast - is languishing 32 points back in eighth place in the standings, going into the Azerbaijan GP at Baku.
The Aussie said after the Monaco GP that he was keen to forget the race and move on as quickly as possible.
“I think the whole weekend was simply just a weekend to forget, for me personally,” Ricciardo said.
“Obviously car 4 (Norris) and the rest of the team got a podium and I obviously want to congratulate them and they got it right.
“I don’t even know if we got it wrong, we just never got going. We didn’t really do a crazy different set-up, the cars are, I want to say, nearly identical from a set-up point of view, I’m not really trying to be too clever with that either, I’ve got more to learn with this car than Lando does, so I’m not trying to be too different.
"Trying to follow suit and move forward but just a strange weekend really from the get-go and one to forget.
“I’m probably not going to over-analyse this one, just move forward for Baku and go from there.”
with agencies
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