
Lando Norris hilariously smashed Max Verstappen’s Hungarian Grand Prix winners’ trophy - this year he's hoping to hold one of his own.
12 months ago at the Hungaroring, Verstappen had just taken his seventh successive win when the post-race celebrations escalated.
The Dutchman's 2023 victory in Hungary was also Red Bull’s 12th - then a new Formula 1 record which continued for a further three races until Carlos Sainz's win in Singapore.
Perhaps just as big a story was British star Norris finishing second in back-to-back races, marking an incredible turnaround in form for McLaren that they took into 2024.
Having notched his eighth career podium in F1, Norris celebrated in his trademark fashion - by bashing his champagne bottle on the floor to pop the cork and allow him to drench his fellow podium finishers.
However, as he whacked the bottle on the podium steps, it sent Verstappen’s first-place trophy crashing to the ground and shattering into pieces.
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The historic Hungaroring trophy is one of the most beautiful prizes on the F1 calendar, made from porcelain by the Herend Porcelain Manufactory.
The prizes are worth €30,000 [£25,900] as of 2020, and last year's edition was in pink, reportedly in celebration of the Barbie movie.
After shattering the trophy and finishing off the champagne honours, Norris could be seen holding his face in laughter as his good friend Verstappen realised what had happened.
Speaking post-race in the media pen Norris was asked what happened to the winner's trophy and jokingly said: "Oh I don't care.
"I did [break it] happily," he added laughing, "It wasn't on purpose, that's my celebration to hit the bottle and Max put his trophy in the wrong place.
Verstappen then disagreed saying: "You said it was my fault?! I'm giving you a yellow card."
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By the time the next race rolled around, Norris became much more contrite for breaking the porcelain ornament into two pieces.
“First of all, I do want to apologise for it,” Norris said ahead of the 2023 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps.
“I obviously had no intention of ever doing such a thing and I know how much it means to the Hungarians and part of their culture and so forth,” he said.
“Of course, I want to enjoy the time, but it was never my intention to do such a thing.”
“I obviously made a couple of jokes about it – which maybe I shouldn’t – but I do feel bad. If he did it to my trophy I’d be annoyed! So I do apologise for it and obviously the people who put the time and effort in and everything into making it.
“I really didn’t mean for it to happen. So I’ll make sure I’m a lot more careful next time when celebrating.”
Herend Porcelain later supplied Verstappen with a replacement five weeks after the incident.
This year, Norris is in the position to challenge for a win and he's aptly chosen to wear a helmet styled by Herend Porcelain.
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He wrote on Instagram: "Honour to team up with @herendporcelain on this hand-painted masterpiece for Hungary.
"When we got together we knew we wanted to do something special and here it is. From the bottom of my heart thank you (and sorry about last year)."