Verstappen and Piastri both failed to improve on their final laps - and the Dutchman blamed that on Norris going slowly in front of him in the final sector. The incident happened on the run to the final corner, where Norris was on the inside coming into the pits as Verstappen sought to complete his lap. His engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said "you can thank your mate for that" - a reference to the friendship between Verstappen and Norris. Verstappen, who looked angry about the situation in the immediate aftermath of qualifying, said: "Without that I think it would have been close for pole." "When you're on a really strong lap and you just touch the wall like that, you're a little bit tentative going into the next corner.