Verstappen fumes at Norris after Singapore quali near-miss: “It’ll be remembered”
Max Verstappen left Marina Bay with a fast car, a missed pole, and a grudge. The Red Bull driver was the last man who could knock George Russell off provisional pole in Singapore, but he peeled out of his final lap at the last corner, gesturing angrily at Lando Norris as he cruised past the McLaren.
Verstappen’s radio was hot before he even reached parc fermé. “You can thank your mate for that,” race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase fired, clearly pointing the finger at Norris for getting in the way as Verstappen wound up for his final time. Norris had already completed his run and was on the way back to the pits; Verstappen’s view was that he didn’t get out of the way quickly enough.
“That’s what happens when there’s a car in front of you just cruising two seconds in front,” Verstappen said afterward. “So that’s noted. It will be remembered as well.”
Pressed on who he meant, Verstappen glanced to his left, where Oscar Piastri was standing, and deadpanned: “Not Oscar.”
It capped a skatey, high-wire qualifying session around Marina Bay where grip came and went with every cloud and cool breeze. Verstappen felt there was a genuine shot at pole without the late interruption. “That was a bit of a shame. Otherwise, I think it could have been close for pole. It’s always very exciting here in qualifying,” he said. “Of course, a little bit disappointed to not be first but for us this weekend, so far, it’s been really good.”
The flashpoint came as Verstappen barrelled toward the final sector with purple intent. Norris, having finished his effort, was ahead and easing off to recover the car and the tyres. The Dutchman arrived, saw orange, and saw red. He backed out before the line rather than complete the lap.
From the outside, it looked like a classic Singapore timing trap. Marina Bay’s narrow walls and awkward out‑laps force drivers to create gaps in traffic, and the in‑lap etiquette that usually keeps things civil can fall apart when one car is ramping up and another is crawling home. That doesn’t make it any less infuriating when you’re the one on the flyer.
Whether the stewards choose to poke into it or not, the political sting is already in the air. Verstappen and Norris generally keep things respectful, but both are circling the same benchmark these days. Any perceived slight in qualifying, particularly at a street circuit where track position is gold, tends to linger.
For Mercedes, it was a cool-headed coup: Russell hooked up when it mattered and parked the W16 on pole. For Red Bull, the pace was there and the execution nearly was. Verstappen’s mood suggested he believes the car—and the lap—had enough to make it interesting at the line.
The race picture is a little spicier now. At Singapore, starting ahead is half the battle; the other half is surviving strategy swings and Safety Cars. Verstappen shrugged off the bigger grievance long enough to sound quietly confident about Sunday. The RB21 looks planted, and even from the wrong side of the grid slot lottery, he’ll feel there’s a way through—especially if Red Bull can flex on pit wall.
As for Norris, there was no drama from his side in the moment beyond playing the part of unintended roadblock. But Verstappen’s “It will be remembered” wasn’t tossed out lightly. Drivers carry those mental tallies, and sometimes they cash them at awkward times.
Street tracks do this to them: they compress the margins, amplify the mistakes and, every so often, turn one slow in‑lap into a storyline. Singapore delivered on all three. Now the bill comes due under the lights.
