Max Verstappen receives reprimand for Lando Norris scare!

Max Verstappen escaped a penalty for the Lando Norris scare during qualifying for the 2022 F1 Japanese GP. The Red Bull driver was warming up the tires on the out-lap with Norris right behind him. The McLaren driver suddenly sped up near 130R in a bid to jump Verstappen, which brought the two dangerously close with Norris having to take to the grass.

While Verstappen had secured pole position, there were still question marks over whether he would retain it. After a meeting with the stewards, the Red Bull driver was just given a reprimand and no further action was taken. The stewards revealed that the reason behind Max Verstappen only receiving a reprimand was due to the precedence of the same thing happening in the past as well.

The report stated:

"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 report further added that Lando Norris himself had termed the incident as 'unfortunate', stating:

"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."

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Max Verstappen calls for more respect on the out-lap between drivers

Commenting on the incident, Max Verstappen claimed that there needed to be a bit more respect between drivers on the out-lap to prevent an accident. He said:

“We were all on our out-lap. We were all lining up to try and create a gap to everyone and somehow he still wanted to get me into the chicane. But I was at the point of accelerating on very cold tyres, so I had a little moment. That’s why he had to drive around me. But if you’re just a bit more respectful, then everyone’s anyway already lining up. I don’t think anyone is trying to pass into that last chicane so basically, by trying to pass me, you create that kind of problem.”

Max Verstappen will start the race in pole position and will be hoping to seal the championship with a win.