Autobayng News Team
Max Verstappen felt it was clear Lando Norris cost him vital time on his final lap in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver saw his championship rival ahead of him on the approach to turn 16. Verstappen ran wide on the way into the corner, then aborted his lap.
He gestured at Norris as he passed the McLaren driver seconds later. Afterwards Verstappen said his proximity to Norris, who was on an on-lap, had caused him to run wide.
“In qualifying, you always try to leave gaps of six or seven seconds, at least, because you want no disturbance,” said Verstappen. “Normally, of course, in Q3, you don’t see a[nother] car unless you’re on a different programme.
“Around here it’s quite clear what you want to do so [everyone] leaves quite big gaps. But then, of, course, sometimes it happens in a street circuit that people abort [laps], make mistakes.
“So then when you then get a car two or three seconds in front of you, you need every [bit] of clean air that you can have on a Q3 lap, especially because you’re fully on the limit with braking and everything. I lost a bit of downforce with that, so I went straight on.”
Verstappen caught Norris after the McLaren driver completed his final run in Q3. Norris drove back in slowly, letting his team mate Oscar Piastri overtake him on the straight between turns nine and 10.
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After that Norris’s race engineer Will Joseph advised him Verstappen was two corners further behind. As Norris was on an in-lap, he had to ensure he took no longer than one minute and 51 seconds to pass between the Safety Car lines at the pit lane exit and entrance. He complied with this rule.
Joseph kept Norris informed of Verstappen’s progress behind him. As there is a lag, typically of a few seconds, between messages being issued and played on the broadcast, it is not possible to be entirely specific about when Norris received each message, so the corner numbers below should be treated as a guide:
| Joseph | Turn two Oscar’s about to open, he’s in the final corner now. |
| Joseph | Turn five That’s Oscar turn one. |
| Joseph | Approaching turn seven Oscar’s just leaving five. |
| Joseph | Exit turn eight Oscar’s at seven. |
| Joseph | Exit turn nine Eight. |
| Joseph | Oscar’s just leaving nine. Norris lets Piastri past approaching turn 10 |
| Joseph | Approaching turn 11 Next is Verstappen, turn eight. |
| Joseph | Approaching turn 14 Verstappen in 13. |
| Joseph | Turn 15 Verstappen in 14. |
| Joseph | Turn 17 We’re box this lap, Verstappen’s approaching 16. |
After Verstappen caught Norris, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase suggested the McLaren driver had caused the momentary understeer at turn 16 which delayed him.
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Verstappen’s response is unclear. On the world feed broadcast FOM played a censorship bleep. No profanity could be heard on his full onboard feed, however one message from Verstappen appeared to have been edited before broadcast as it made no sense and his inflection changed abruptly:
| Verstappen | Am I the last one? |
| Lambiase | You are the last car, and we will have to get on with it on the out-lap. People are leaving more than double-digit gaps. |
| Lambiase | He follows Piastri closely out of the pits Leave your gap to Piastri, Max. Norris coming through. Norris passes by while Verstappen is in the pit exitOkay, let’s go. |
| Lambiase | We have time to manage this. Only Hadjar on a timed lap, 5.5 seconds. |
| Verstappen | Hadjar does not pass him Where did he go? |
| Lambiase | He’s aborted, but he’s bringing it home, so it will not be a threat. Build your gap here to Piastri. If you can get a move on with DRS through 14. |
| Lambiase | Okay, let’s go. Track is clear, Max. |
| Lambiase | You can thank your mate for that. |
| Lambiase | Slow button and target minus two. |
| Verstappen | Message appears to be edited I guess was in it but [message cuts] when people do that. |
| Mekies | It was super-close, Max. Still a great job with what we have today. You guys still extracted everything. It could have been even closer, but it’s okay. We take that point, well done Max |
| Verstappen | Yeah we take it. I think this has so far been a really good weekend for us around here. |
Although Red Bull insisted the delay cost Verstappen a chance to beat George Russell to pole position, he was already at a disadvantage before that corner. After the first two sectors Verstappen was 0.166 seconds slower than Russell.
While it’s possible Norris timed his in-lap to maximise the inconvenience it caused Verstappen, this is impossible to prove. It is, however, reminiscent of their coinciding laps during qualifying at the Hungaroring last year.
Verstappen took note of that at the time, and made it clear today he wouldn’t forget the time he felt he lost behind Norris. “That’s what happens when there’s a car in front of you just cruising two seconds in front,” he said. “So that’s noted. It will be remembered as well.”
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