Helmut Marko blasts “incomprehensible” Norris as Verstappen fumes over late quali tangle
Helmut Marko didn’t bother hiding his frustration after qualifying in Singapore, calling Lando Norris “incomprehensible” for getting in Max Verstappen’s way just as the Red Bull driver looked poised to take a swing at George Russell’s pole.
The flashpoint came in the final seconds of Q3. Norris had already banked his lap — only good enough for fifth — and was peeling toward the pit entry when Verstappen arrived in the final corners on a lap that, by Red Bull’s reckoning, was up on his previous time. Max backed out, flung an exasperated hand in the McLaren’s direction, and got a pointed message from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase: “You can thank your mate for that.”
“It was very, very close — as we expected,” Marko told Sky Sports. “But Norris’s move was incomprehensible. We were already one and a half tenths up on our previous lap. He completely blocked Max in the final two corners. For Norris, there was nothing to gain, so I just don’t understand it. I hope he simply didn’t look in his mirrors. I can’t imagine it was intentional.”
Verstappen, for his part, left little doubt about how he saw it. “That’s what happens when there’s a car in front of you just cruising two seconds in front,” he said. “So that’s noted. It will be remembered as well.” Asked who he meant — while standing next to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri — Verstappen deadpanned: “Not Oscar.”
Norris brushed off the accusation. “They always complain, they complain about everything. That’s Red Bull,” he said. “I didn’t even know, I was like three seconds ahead.”
The whole thing unfolded in the most awkward real estate on the Marina Bay layout, where the pit entry peels off just as drivers commit to their final blasts. Even a car preparing to pit can upset the air and the rhythm. And when qualifying margins hang on a tenth here or there — and Russell had just parked Mercedes on pole — you can see why Verstappen was spitting nails.
The nuance: Norris wasn’t on a push lap and wasn’t fighting for track position anymore. But equally, he was on the racing line at the point Verstappen was sizing up his final shot, and there’s not a lot of room or patience late in Q3. It’s one of those situations that tends to trigger the stewards’ curiosity and the paddock’s outrage in equal measure.
Politics always fill the vacuum. Red Bull feel a potential pole went begging in the haze of orange papaya; McLaren point to the clock and the mirrors and insist there was no malice, just timing. If there’s a grey area, this sport finds it. And in 2025, with McLaren regularly in Red Bull’s mirrors — and sometimes ahead — the needle between the two camps moves fast.
What’s not in doubt is the form book. Mercedes and Russell owned the key laps when it counted, Verstappen was the nearest threat, and Norris couldn’t convert McLaren’s promise over a single lap. Oscar Piastri, who kept his head out of the drama, will have quietly enjoyed Max’s “Not Oscar” aside.
We’ve been here before. Verstappen has a long memory for qualifying impediments, and Norris has a sharp tongue when he feels he’s been unfairly fingered. Expect more of this as the season grinds on, especially at circuits where pit entry and racing line converge like Marina Bay’s tight finale.
Bottom line: Russell starts from the box seat, Verstappen’s temper runs a few degrees hotter than his tyres, and Norris shrugs off the static. If the opening laps match the tone from Saturday night, Singapore’s street race won’t lack narrative.
