Christian Horner accused Lando Norris of violating a "gentleman's agreement" which led to a scary moment which almost saw him crash into Max Verstappen at high speed.
It happed during the final part of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, with both drivers on an out lap. Verstappen was ahead of Norris on the track and was going slowly through the final few corners, and the McLaren man decided to overtake to get track position.
As he came past on the inside, Verstappen briefly lost control of the rear of his Red Bull and twitched sideways. That forced Norris onto the grass at speed to avoid a crash, and the stewards have called both drivers to their office to explain themselves.
Red Bull chief Horner believes his driver has nothing to worry about, and instead claimed Norris should not have been overtaking in the first place. "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," he told Sky Sports.
"So, Lando decided that he wants to jump the queue as they head up to that final chicane. They were following each other around the lap until that point. I don't think [Verstappen] expected it – he was warming the tyres up to start the lap. They go one-by-one through the chicane.
"They are all doing different things on the out lap and I can only assume that Lando wanted to blitz it into the chicane." Verstappen also gave the impression that he was not worried about losing pole position, as he reacted to that moment after climbing out of the cockpit of his car.
"I was just driving quite slow and I wanted to accelerate but then I had a big moment and then Lando was trying to pass me at the same time and he had to avoid me. Luckily nothing happened," he told Johnny Herbert. He will make his case to the stewards at 9am UK time.
Also reacting to the incident, Norris accused Verstappen of trying to defend track position and said he expects the Dutchman to be given a penalty. "It was quite clear that he tried to do that," the Brit told Sky.
"There is no rule on doing what you can do, but doing what he did is something you can't do. People always overtake at the last corner, as much as everyone agrees to it they still overtake. He would have done the same if he was in my position but I wouldn't have swerved at him if I was in his situation."
