Horner on incident between Verstappen and Norris: 'It's a gentleman's agreement'

F1 News

8 October 2022 at 08:34
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  • GPblog.com

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris escaped a fierce accident during the final session of qualifying in Japan. While Max Verstappen was seemingly warming up his tyres, Lando Norris passed at lightning speed and both drivers only just missed each other. Christian Horner tells Sky Sports that it simply seems to be a misunderstanding.

"I think they both had an out-lap," Horner began. "It's a gentleman's agreement between the drivers that when you get to that part of the circuit that you keep position and go one by one through the last chicane. Lando decided to go for it. They followed each other up to that point the whole circuit."

"He (Verstappen, ed.) was just warming up the tyres to open his lap. Lando did it again in the last run. They were all doing different things with the tyres in the out-lap and I can only assume Lando decided to pop through 130R and the chicane."

Verstappen must fear penalty in GP Japan

The race committee has since announced that it will still look into the incident. To do so, Verstappen has to come to the stewards after qualifying to tell his story. For now, it remains to be seen whether his pole position will be jeopardised.