Max Verstappen rejects talks with Lando Norris to clear the air over F1 Singapore GP qualifying incident

Max Verstappen has shunned the idea of clearing the air with Lando Norris after the Singapore GP qualifying incident hurt his chances of securing pole position. The Red Bull driver was pushing on his final lap and within a tenth of George Russell when he encountered the McLaren driver a few seconds ahead.

The dirty air from the car meant Max Verstappen overshot his braking point and would lose his lap. This also led to a heated gesture from the Red Bull driver towards Lando Norris. The Dutch driver wasn't happy with what had happened and, in the post-session press scrum, made it a point to mention that as well.

The two drivers have been friends off track, but the friction between the two has continued to be there ever since Lando Norris emerged as a title contender last season.

When questioned during the press conference if he would have a conversation with the McLaren driver about the incident, Max Verstappen flatly declined the suggestion, as he felt that it was quite clear what had happened. He said,

"No. I think it's quite clear — that's something that is not nice, when it happens to someone. 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."

Max Verstappen clarifies his anger over Lando Norris' positioning of the car

In the post-qualifying press conference, Max Verstappen clarified why he was upset at what had happened. The driver explained that drivers try to maintain around 7-8 seconds of a gap to the car ahead to prevent dirty air from having an impact. Lando Norris was just 3 seconds ahead, and that led to the error. He said,

"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."

He added,

"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."

The Dutch driver starts the race on the front row this Sunday, while Lando Norris will be in P5. It would be interesting to see if the two drivers do have a coming together in the race or just end up running independently.