An incident involving Simon Pagenaud and Lando Norris during Saturday’s IndyCar iRacing Challenge ovꦗershadowed the 🧜race at a virtual Indianapolis and stirred debate in the motorsport community.

Reig😼ning Indianapolis 500 champion Pagenaud appeared to deliberately slow leaving race-leader Norris nowhere ဣto go as the McLaren driver hit the back of Pagenaud.

Just before the clash, Pagenaud said: ꦉ“Oh, I was pitting, I didn’🔯t mean to…”

It came a few laps after Pagenaud had been inadvertently hit by Graham Rahal as Norris overtoꦇok the 💫latter to move into the lead at the virtual Brickyard.

Norris revealed Pagenaud had apologised to him for the incident but claimed the Frenchman was “salty” 🐬for not wanting a non-IndyCar driver to win the even൩t.

But footage from Pagenaud’s live stre♐am which emerged after the race had finished changed the complexion of the collision and left fans and the wider motorsport community calling into question Pagenaud’s sportsmanship - or perhaps lack of it.

“We take Lando out, let’s do it,” were the words uttered by Pagenaud which stirred grea🦋t debate and split opinion about the ethics of the move.

Debating the incident with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen having witnessed Pagenaud’s stream for the first time, Norris said: “Even his spotter says ‘let’s friction do this’. Ye꧒ah, bold strategy mate.

“This is amazing. I even said it before, ‘Pagenaud’s about to take me out’, a♒nd my spotteꦅr was like, yeah we’ll see about that. Two seconds later, I’m flipping around.”

Analysing the clash further, Norris adds: “Ah ꦇhe’s lifting. H𝐆e’s such a liar (laughter).

“He’s such ⛄a class act. Even his spotter is laughing away.”

Verstappen echoed Norris’ verdict and described th💛e incident as the “the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”

In a tweet, McLaren te🐎am boss Zak Brown said the behaviour was “not what you expe🍎ct from a champion.”

Watch the video below and make up your own mind about the incident. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Wow...

— WTF1 (@wtf1official)