Max Verstappen reveals Lando Norris stance after explaining frustration

Max Verstappen will not seek out Lando Norris to discuss the Q3 incident that the Dutchman feels prevented him from challenging for pole at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver could not conceal his annoyance with the Briton after the grid-setting session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, where George Russell beat him by two tenths of a second.

He bailed out of his final push lap just before the final corner, having felt Norris disturbed the clean air ahead of him through the Turn 16/17 chicane — and any opportunity to start from first.

Verstappen has never claimed pole position, nor won, around the streets of the city-state, and felt aggrieved by Norris not following the gentleman's agreement of staying out of the way of others during Q3.

When asked in the post-qualifying FIA press conference who it was that interrupted his lap, he took the opportunity to expand on his frustration with the McLaren driver.

In front of media, including RacingNews365, the four-time F1 drivers' champion replied: "You said it already, no? Lando.

"To clarify, in qualifying, you always try to leave gaps of what, six, seven seconds, at least, because you want no disturbance.

"Normally, of course, in Q3 you don't see a car or 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, everyone. But then, of course, sometimes it happens in a street circuit, people are bored, make mistakes.

"So yeah, 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.

"And yeah, I lost a bit of downforce for that, so I went straight on. That's it."

Nonetheless, the 28-year-old did not feel it necessary to engage Norris, with whom he is good friends, in talks about the incident.

"No. I think it's quite clear — that's something that is not nice, when it happens to someone," he responded when it was queried as to whether he would speak to the nine-time grand prix winner about it.

"I think in general, we're always quite good at that, all the drivers who try to stay out of the way. I mean, 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."

Meanwhile, in his own media duties, Norris hit back, claiming Red Bull always "complain" about such situations.

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