Sad news: Max verstappen have announced his retirement due to his inability to….see.. More…

It’s been building – and if it wasn’t here at the Austrian Grand Prix it would have been somewhere else.

The sticking Red Bull rear wheel at the final pitstop put the pieces in place for it to be here, on this day, in the late stages of the race, at Turn 3.

On their third niggly bout into there, Verstappen moved in the braking area and punctured his tyre against the McLaren’s. Norris took a puncture too, paving the way for a George Russell victory once he’d driven his Mercedes by the scene and carbonfibre fallout 13 seconds later.

There’s too much pride and status at stake for this not to be inevitable. The McLaren has become good enough over the last few races that it’s almost pushed Norris into a fight with his friend. It was easy to be friends when one had the dominant car and the other was playing years of catch-up and they shared their enthusiasms, their online racing, their banter. Verstappen has several times over the years bigged up Norris, recognising very well his level.

But it was competitively unacceptable for Norris to just lie down to the totally uncompromising way Verstappen races if he is pushed to extremes.