The pair were battling for the lead in the closing stages of the race when they made contact at Turn 3.

It left both with punctures, the resulting damage ending Norris’ race while Verstappen salvaged fifth place.

Norris had stormed up on the back of the Red Bull driver in the final stint of the race and mounted a strong challenge for the lead.

His efforts had been rebuffed on each occasion, often aggressively, before the seemingly inevitably contact occurred on Lap 65, handing victory to George Russell.

“I expect a tough battle against Max. I know what to expect,” Norris said.

“I expect aggression and pushing to the limits and that kind of thing, but all three times he’s doing stuff that can easily cause an incident.

“In a way it’s just a bit reckless. It seemed like a little bit desperate from his side – doesn’t need to be, he’s got plenty of wins – but a bit desperate to do what he could to not let me past.

“I’m in a way not surprised. I just expected a tough, fair, respectful on the edge bit of racing, and I don’t feel like that’s what I got.”

Norris suffered a right-rear puncture in the Turn 3 clash, dragging his McLaren back to the pit lane where it was retired.

During the battle, the Brit had complained that Verstappen was moving under braking and driving in his mirrors to defend.

Verstappen countered that, arguing that while he may have moved, it was not under brakes and that Norris was being optimistic with his overtaking attempts.

“Every time I moved I was not braking already,” he argued.

“Of course, from the outside, it looks like that, but I think I know fairly well what to do in these kinds of scenarios.

“A few of those were really late divebombs, so it’s a bit of a just send them up the inside and hope that the other guy steers out of it, which is not always how you race.”

Verstappen noted the shape of the track in Austria contributed to the crash, with the curved approach into the braking zone at Turn 3.

While disappointed to have collided with Norris, the championship leader suggested a poorly executed race was ultimately to blame.

“The first stint was quite good then at the end of that first stint I caught quite a bit of traffic,” he explained.

“We should have boxed for me personally because I just gave up free lap time.

“We basically did a lot of things wrong today, I think starting with strategy, then the pit stops were a disaster,” he added.

“The first one was really bad, the second one even more of a disaster, and then you give free lap time, six seconds over those two pit stops.

“Then of course it’s a race again and that’s why we put ourselves in that position.

“Unfortunate then of course for an accident to happen between us, which you never want to happen, but we did everything wrong that we could have done today.”

While Verstappen felt he had done nothing wrong, Norris believes he too was innocent in the clash, which officials handed the former a 10-second penalty for.

“I don’t think I need to change anything I’m doing,” Norris reasoned.

“I was on the edge of the track, I don’t know what else I’m able to do.

“There’s times where I think he goes a little bit too far,” he added.

“At the same time these things happen, I’m disappointed it ruined the race.”

The damage to the McLaren was substantial, raising concerns about the impact it may have on next weekend’s British Grand Prix.

“The car is destroyed and these are bits we need for next week,” Norris noted.

“It’s not just a repercussion of things that happen on track it’s now what we carry into Silverstone and be disadvantaged by.

“Yeah, just expected a bit more from him.”

Verstappen admitted that he’ll discuss the incident with Norris once emotions have died down.

“We’re all racing drivers, of course we don’t want to crash with ach other, but when you’re fighting for the lead… it happened today, which is of course a shame,” he reasoned.

“We’ll talk about it; not now, it’s not the right time,” he added.

“Of course Lando and I have a little age gap which is why we never really raced together in lower categories like some other drivers here but we’ll move on.”