Max Verstappen tells Lando Norris 'it will be remembered' as Singapore GP drama erupts
Max Verstappen qualified ahead of Lando Norris at the Singapore Grand Prix, but the Red Bull driver was furious with his friend and rival after an on-track incident.
Max Verstappen has warned Lando Norris that 'it will be remembered', after he deemed the McLaren driver to have ruined his final qualifying attempt at the Singapore Grand Prix. The Dutchman will start from second on the grid, while the man second in the Drivers' Championship standings will launch from fifth place.
Verstappen was a couple of tenths of a second down on provisional pole-sitter George Russell heading into the final sector of his ultimate Q3 run when he came across Norris' McLaren car. The Bristol-born driver had already completed his last effort and was driving slowly on his way back into the pit lane.
The dirty air created by Norris' presence caused Verstappen to lose downforce through the final string of corners, ending his faint hopes of usurping Russell's time.
"You can thank your mate for that one," race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said on the radio after informing his driver of his P2 grid slot. Verstappen replied with an expletive, making his feelings clear.
"That's what happens when there is a car in front of you, just cruising three seconds in front," Verstappen stated in his post-qualifying interview. "So that's noted, it will be remembered as well."
The Dutchman delved deeper into the issue during the press conference, sitting alongside Russell and Norris' McLaren team-mate, Oscar Piastri. "In qualifying, you always try to leave gaps of six or seven seconds at least, because you want no disturbance," Verstappen explained.
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"But of course sometimes it happens on a street circuit that people are bored and make mistakes, so 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 are fully on the limit with braking and everything, and then I lost a bit of downforce with that so I went straight on."
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Verstappen's frustrations are understandable, given the tense state of the Drivers' Championship title fight. The 28-year-old dragged himself back into contention out of the blue, winning back-to-back races in Monza and Baku. Heading into the Singapore GP weekend, the Red Bull star was 69 points behind Piastri at the top of the standings.
With Norris, who is 25 points behind his team-mate in second place, down in fifth place and Piastri only able to qualify third, seizing pole position in Singapore would have given Verstappen an opportunity to inflict significant damage on the Australian's advantage.