Max Verstappen was told by his race engineer to stay calm as Lewis Hamilton broke the gentleman's agreement that exists between Formula 1 drivers at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The incident occurred during qualifying, as drivers jostled for position towards the end of the first part of qualifying on Saturday. As each racer prepared for their flying lap, they were crawling around the final few corners of the track to give themselves free air in front of them.
Verstappen and Hamilton were both in that group, and were heard making comments over the radio about it. "There's loads of traffic," the Brit told his engineer, while the Red Bull driver simply said: "Unbelievable," before a slightly derisive laugh.
Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase replied: "So just start the lap. Get a good gap, try to get as much learning as possible." Regarding the traffic around the Dutchman, he added: "Let them go – let them play."
There is a gentleman's agreement among F1 drivers that no-one is supposed to overtake and skip the line in such a scenario. Verstappen stuck to that unwritten rule but several other drivers did not, including Hamilton who was clearly more interesting in removing himself from the congestion.
As the Mercedes car moved past, and Verstappen turned his steering wheel towards him in reaction, his race engineer was back on the radio to urge the driver not to react. "Let him go – let him play," said Lambiase.
Neither driver was affected in the end, as they both made it through to Q1 with no troubles. Verstappen went on to qualify on pole, setting two different lap times in Q3 which were both fast enough to top the timesheets.
Hamilton, meanwhile, went fifth quickest with the Mercedes cars back to being off the pace of the Red Bulls and Ferraris. The same was true in Sunday's race. Verstappen won comfortably – his 15th victory of the season – while Hamilton was forced to retire with a few laps to go with a hydraulics issue.
Joking about his W13 car which has not been competitive enough this year, Hamilton said: "I don't ever plan to drive this one again. It won't be one of the ones I request to have in my contract."
