Norris ruined his qualifying: I couldn’t believe my eyes, says Verstappen

The closing stages of qualifying in Mexico were a tense affair. The tifosi were on tenterhooks until the very end, waiting to see whether Lewis Hamilton could snatch top spot. In the end, the seven-time champion managed it, but he also had help from Lando Norris, who threw a spanner in the works for Verstappen.

Hamilton’s first attempt did not go to plan, but his second flying lap in Q3 took him to the top of the timesheets. Leclerc, Antonelli, Norris and Verstappen still had a chance to beat him. The first three fell short, but the fight for top spot was not over yet.

Verstappen set a purple first sector and, thanks to a personal best in the second, was provisionally 0.082 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. His third sector, however, was a write-off. “Fucking brilliant Norris! Puts the car there!” he fumed over the radio.

Red Bull had been struggling at Turn 13 since Q1, so its drivers had to take particular care through the stadium section. “I arrived at turn 12, and then I picked up dirty air because they were driving so slowly. So, I already lost a bit of time there, but the lap was good. I think overall qualifying was very strong.”

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him. I saw the car on the right,” admitted Verstappen, who suddenly found himself unsure exactly where to start braking.

Norris was in his way. “So, you lose your braking reference, you have to enter at a little bit of a different angle to the braking point, and in such a tight corner, you can’t afford that. That’s when I locked up.”

“For sure, we were in that fight for pole, which for me is of course the most important, because I think all weekend I’ve not been really happy with the car, but then in qualifying, we really improved the car, which I think is the most important,” he said, highlighting one major positive from Saturday’s running.

To be statistically precise, we should point out that even beating Hamilton would not have been enough to give Verstappen pole position. At best, he would have started second, having received a penalty following an unnecessary altercation with Lawson.

“It’s a new one, that penalty, but yeah, we’ll keep inventing new ones, I guess,” said Verstappen in sarcastic praise of the stewards. “At the same time, everything I’ve said I’ve said already and also internally everything has been said. For us I think everything is done.”

Verstappen will start Sunday’s race from fifth. The upside is that he will move to the clean side of the grid, but even that is unlikely to help Red Bull. “I think I have more chances of winning at the casino than of making a good start!”