{"id":475451,"date":"2025-10-05T08:33:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/475451\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T08:33:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T08:33:13","slug":"exactly-what-i-would-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/475451\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cExactly what I would say\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Max Verstappen<\/a> and Red Bull Racing<\/a>, the qualifying session in Singapore has gone according to plan \u2013 and given recent history at the Marina Bay Street Circuit<\/a>, perhaps even better than expected. Just like last year, the Dutchman secured second place on the grid under the floodlights, although the feeling is different this time. Red Bull has made progress, and this weekend provides confirmation of that progress on a high-downforce circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although that’s essentially good news for Verstappen, he still showed some frustration after the session. He claims that Lando Norris<\/a> hindered him in the final stages of Q3, not by blocking, but in Verstappen\u2019s opinion by creating dirty air and driving slowly a few seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The dirty air effect in Singapore\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have been really close,\u201d Verstappen replied during his Dutch media round when asked if pole had been possible. \u201cThat first lap from George was very strong, but we definitely had the potential to fight for it. I could see it on my steering wheel as well during that second lap in Q3,\u201d he refers to the delta times that drivers can see.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially in Q3, you simply can\u2019t afford to have a car that close in front of you. Everyone leaves at least an eight seconds\u2019 gap. With these cars and the amount of downforce you have, you don\u2019t want anyone in front of you at all. I don\u2019t know what happened there, but it seemed unnecessary to me, to drive into the pits so slowly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Sam Bloxham \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

A penalty for the driver ahead was of course never in question, although Verstappen stressed he felt affected. \u201cYou can\u2019t say he\u2019s holding you up, because he isn\u2019t, he\u2019s not blocking. But these cars are so sensitive to turbulence and dirty air, you really don\u2019t want that in qualifying. It\u2019s an unwritten rule that you just don\u2019t do things like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Verstappen stated Norris was around two seconds in front of him at that moment, the reigning champion added that the impact of dirty air is felt even further back. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to be within six or seven seconds of any car ahead. Absolutely not,\u201d Verstappen clarified when asked by Motorsport.com.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Norris, for his part, brushed off the claims and emphasised that Red Bull \u201calways has something to complain about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, that\u2019s exactly what I would say as well if I were him,\u201d Verstappen laughed in response. Asked whether he intends to \u201cget back\u201d at Norris at some point, Verstappen paused: \u201cI don\u2019t know\u2026\u201d After it was pointed out that he had already given his answer over the team radio when the Dutchman remarked that the moment \u201cwill be remembered,\u201d Verstappen added: \u201cYes\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Is Verstappen a factor again for the McLaren drivers?\u00a0
\n \"Oscar <\/p>\n

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Zak Mauger \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The fact that conversations now revolve around such small moments says something about Red Bull\u2019s recent progress. It indicates that Verstappen has once again become a factor in F1’s title fight, although he doesn’t want to get involved in any mental games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t care about those things at all,\u201d he said. \u201cI just live my life and do my own thing at the track. Then I go home and do other things. If others have me in their heads, then that\u2019s their problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The main point, Verstappen stressed, is that Red Bull can once again compete for top results on a track that normally poses a bigger challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, that moment wasn\u2019t ideal, and of course I\u2019d prefer to be on pole, but ultimately we\u2019re still starting second,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, that\u2019s a very good result on a track like this, especially looking at the way we\u2019ve achieved it. We were extremely competitive, and that\u2019s what really matters to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, the qualifying session in Singapore has gone according to plan \u2013…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[155365,707,1711,1073,1710,749,130103,79,157906,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-475451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-f1-singapore-grand-prix-2025","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-lando-norris","11":"tag-max-verstappen","12":"tag-mclaren","13":"tag-red-bull-racing","14":"tag-singapore-gp","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-u201cexactly-what-i-would-sayu201d-max-verstappenu2019s-response-to-lando-norris-after-singapore-frustration","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115320639072055492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}