Max Verstappen stopped an interview after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to check on Lando Norris, who was walking through the media pen. The British racer battled with the physical conditions in Jeddah as he fought from 10th on the grid to finish fourth. The Saudi Arabian GP was a challenging weekend for Norris from start to finish. After trailing team-mate Oscar Piastri for pace throughout the free practice sessions, he crashed on his first Q3 attempt in qualifying, relegating him to a P10 grid slot.

Then, in brutally hot conditions in the race, he fought through the field by running extremely long on hard compound tyres, meaning he finished the Grand Prix punching in qualifying laps in an attempt to hunt down Charles Leclerc and George Russell ahead of him.

In the media pen after the race, the Brit looked visibly exhausted. When he walked behind Verstappen’s interview with Nova Sport, the Dutchman paused his conversation to ask: “You okay?”

Norris turned around to greet his friend while walking and gave him a thumbs-up. Verstappen then followed up by asking: “All good?” The Brit replied: “I’ve done better,” prompting the Red Bull star to tag on: “Physically!” before they shared a laugh.

While the heat and dehydration were getting to Norris after climbing out of the cockpit, the Brit insisted that he was not struggling physically during the Grand Prix. “That was a tough one,” he confessed. “This track is tough, this temperature is tough, and it’s flat out.

“There’s no saving on the tyres here, it’s flat out from start to finish. I was struggling - not in terms of physically, but just in terms of having enough of an advantage over the rest to come back through as much as I would have wanted.

“It would have been nice to get Charles and have a little podium, and I’d drink all the champagne right now because I would love that - or the apple juice would be even better. I dream of that at the minute. But I think it was the best that we could achieve today. Clearly, we’re not head and shoulders above the rest.”

In another interview, the 25-year-old revealed that he will be training hard during the break between this event and the Miami Grand Prix in two weeks’ time. Norris now trails team-mate Piastri by 10 points in the Drivers’ Championship standings, and the Australian is in red-hot form with three wins in the last four race weekends.