Max Verstappen took a dim view of Lando Norris’ apparent unwillingness to get out of the way at the close of Singapore Grand Prix qualifying, which he blamed for missing a shot at a first Formula 1 pole at the Marina Bay race.
Verstappen encountered Norris at the end of his late Q3 lap as the McLaren driver was making his way back to the pitlane after completing his final run.
Norris was about to enter the pitlane as Verstappen exited Turn 17, and this prompted the four-time champion to back out as he approached the Turn 18-19 double-left.
Verstappen felt that the dirty air had snuffed out any chances of challenging George Russell for pole position, as the Mercedes driver took his second pole of the year.
“I think it’s quite clear that that’s something that is not nice when it happens to someone. I think in general, we are always quite good at that. All the drivers, we try to stay out of the way.
“I mean, sometimes, it’s always a bit more complicated in certain scenarios. Every scenario is a bit different, but in this case, in Q3 with only 10 cars on the track, I think it could have been avoided.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images
Verstappen elaborated on the incident and suspected Norris was “bored” on his way back to the pits, and not paying attention to a faster car coming through to complete the lap.
Given the nature of a street circuit, where the walls often contain the dirty air produced by a car in front, Verstappen surmised that Norris’ return to the pits had cost him a not-insignificant amount of downforce.
“In qualifying, you always try to leave gaps of about six or seven seconds at least, because you want no disturbance. Normally, of course, in Q3, you don’t see a car, unless you’re on a different program.
“But I think around here, it’s quite clear what you want to do, so you leave quite big gaps. But then, of course, sometimes it happens on a street circuit that people are bored, make mistakes.
“When you then get a car two, three seconds in front of you, you need every kind 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.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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