Max Verstappen and Red Bull fume at ‘your mate’ Lando Norris for potential quali block

Max Verstappen and Red Bull were left fuming at Lando Norris with race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase saying “you can thank your mate for that” for a potential block in qualifying.

With Norris already having completed his lap, he was on his way back to the garage when Verstappen was approaching on his flying lap and the Dutchman clearly felt the McLaren driver did not get out of the way.

Max Verstappen fumes at Lando Norris in Singapore GP quali

Verstappen was the only driver left on track who could have pipped pole sitter George Russell but instead he aborted in the last corner and replays showed he angrily waved his hand at Norris.

His race engineer Lambiase then came on the radio to say “you can thank your mate for that” with Verstappen asked about the incident in the post-session interviews.

David Coulthard said he looked to have made a “mistake” in his final lap but Verstappen blamed 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.”

Verstappen was then asked who he was referring to and, stood alongside Norris’ McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, the Dutchman replied: “Not Oscar.”

“So that was a bit of a shame. Otherwise, I think it could have been close for pole. It’s always very exciting here in qualifying.

“Of course, a little bit disappointed to not be first but for us this weekend, so far, it’s been really good.”

Speaking in the press conference shortly after, Verstappen said he would not talk to Norris about the incident.

“I think it’s quite clear that that’s something that is not nice when it happens to someone,” he said.

“I think in general, we are always quite good at that — all the drivers, we try to stay out of the way. Sometimes, of course, it’s always a bit more complicated in certain scenarios so 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.

“In qualifying, you always try to leave gaps of six, seven seconds, at least you want no disturbance.

“Normally, of course, in Q3 you don’t see a car unless you’re on a different programme. 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 in the street circuit, if people are bored, make mistakes. So when you then get a car two, three seconds in front of you, I mean, 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.

“And yeah, lost a bit of downforce with that so I went straight on and that’s it.”

Read next: Singapore GP: George Russell sets pole position as angry Max Verstappen takes aim at Norris