“Next is Verstappen”: Did Norris deliberately hold up McLaren’s biggest rival?

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:

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:

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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