Max Verstappen has avoided a grid penalty for an incident with Lando Norris during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Dutchman set the fastest time in Q3 to finish top of the pile, but there was a cloud hanging over his head following that incident earlier in the session. During an out lap, he had a close shave with Norris which did not go unnoticed by the stewards.
Verstappen was ahead on the track but moving slowly, and the McLaren man decided to overtake heading towards the final chicane. But as he moved past the Red Bull twitched to the left, forcing Norris off the road at high speed.
The Brit was clearly unhappy afterwards, as he called for Verstappen to be punished for what he felt was a deliberate move. But the stewards did not feel it was serious enough to warrant a grid drop, and instead the Dutchman was simply given a reprimand.
"It was quite clear that he tried to do that," Norris had told Sky Sports F1. "There is no rule on doing what you can do, but doing what he did is something you can't do. People always overtake at the last corner, as much as everyone agrees to it they still overtake. He would have done the same if he was in my position but I wouldn't have swerved at him if I was in his situation."
But Christian Horner defended his driver and instead suggested Norris was in the wrong for attempting to overtake in the first place. "They both were on outlaps and there is a gentleman's agreement between the drivers that when you get to that part of the circuit that you hold position and you file through the last corner one by one," the team boss said.
"So, Lando decided that he wants to jump the queue as they head up to that final chicane. They were following each other around the lap until that point. I don't think [Verstappen] expected it – he was warming the tyres up to start the lap. They go one-by-one through the chicane."
And Verstappen also felt he had done nothing intentionally wrong, telling Johnny Herbert : "I was just driving quite slow and I wanted to accelerate but then I had a big moment and then Lando was trying to pass me at the same time and he had to avoid me. Luckily nothing happened."
In the official document revealing the decision, the stewards wrote: "The stewards heard from the driver of Car 1 (Max Verstappen), the driver of Car 4 (Lando Norris) and team representatives and reviewed video and timing evidence.
"The driver of car 1 was aware of car 55 in front and car 4 approaching from behind and decided to accelerate at precisely the same time as car 4 decided to overtake car 1. Unfortunately, due to lack of tyre temperature on car 1, the driver temporarily lost control of the car causing it to ‘snap’ anti-clockwise.
"The driver of car 4 stated that this was simply an unfortunate incident however it is the driver’s responsibility to at all times maintain control of their car. Regarding penalty, all previous breaches of this nature have resulted in a reprimand hence a similar penalty is imposed in this case."
