Norris rejects Red Bull claim he broke ‘gentleman’s agreement’ in Q3 near-miss · RaceFans

Lando Norris has denied accusations by Red Bull he broke a “gentleman’s agreement” by overtaking Max Verstappen when the pair almost collided during qualifying.

The two drivers are being investigated by the stewards following their near-miss, which occured at the start of Q3. Both were on their out-laps about to start their first timed laps of the session when Norris caught up to the Red Bull on the exit of the fast 130R corner.

Verstappen was cruising at around 100km/h when Norris tried to pass the Red Bull at around 240km/h. The Red Bull driver, seemingly trying to warm his tyres, appeared to break traction and swerved to the left as Norris approached him.

Norris drove onto the grass to the left of Verstappen in order to avoid a collision with the Red Bull, and moved ahead of Verstappen before the pair began their flying laps. The McLaren driver expressed his unhappiness with Verstappen to race engineer Will Joseph on his in-lap after posting his first time of the session:

Verstappen took pole position but the stewards have announced he is under investigation for the incident. The pair were summoned to meet the stewards at 5pm local time.

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner accused Norris of breaking an agreement between the drivers by trying to pass Verstappen.

“They were both on out-laps and there’s a gentleman’s agreement between the drivers that when you get to that part of the circuit that you hold position and they file through the last chicane one by one,” Horner told Sky. “So Lando’s obviously decided that he wants to jump the queue as they head up to that final chicane.”

Verstappen also said Norris should have been more “respectful”. However Norris said Verstappen would have done the same in his position.

“People always overtake before the last corner,” Norris told Sky. “As much as everyone always agrees to it, everyone always does it.

“So it doesn’t matter. He probably would have done the same if he was in my situation, but I wouldn’t have swerved at him if I was in his situation.”

The McLaren driver believes Verstappen tried to keep him behind by turning towards him…