Max Verstappen felt he had been shown a lack of "respect" by Lando Norris in the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying incident that nearly landed him in hot water with the stewards.
The pair almost crashed during Q3 at Suzuka, when Norris overtook Verstappen on their out lap. The Dutchman was travelling very slowly as he approached the final chicane before starting a flying lap, and so the McLaren driver decided he did not want to wait and went to move past.
As he did so, Verstappen revved his Red Bull to try to get some temperature into his tyres ready for his hot lap. As he did so he briefly lost control of his car which twitched violently anti-clockwise, forcing Norris to head off the track at high speed to avoid a crash.
Verstappen was confident after that he would not be given a penalty for his actions, and instead criticised his good friend Norris for overtaking at that point on the track. "We were on our out lap and we were all lining up to create a gap to everyone and then somehow he still wanted to get me into the chicane," said the Dutchman.
"I was on the point of accelerating and I was on very cold tyres, so I had a little moment and that's why he had to drive around me. But if he had just a bit more respect for me, because everyone is anyway lining up and I don't think anyone is trying to pass into that last chicane, so by trying to pass me you create that kind of thing."
That assessment mirrored what Christian Horner had said to Sky Sports a few moments earlier. "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 Red Bull chief said.
Norris cut a frustrated figure after the session and accused Verstappen of doing "something that you cannot do", and also calling for the pole-sitter to be slapped with a penalty. But an FIA document, which revealed Verstappen would simply be reprimanded, later hinted that the Brit had admitted it was "simply an unfortunate incident".
"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 stewards wrote. "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."
