29/07/2023
NEWS STORY
"It's all good," insists Max Verstappen following heated exchange with his engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase during qualifying.
The exchange followed the decision at the end of Q2 for the Dutchman to complete a lap at low speed in order to charge his battery after running wide in Turn 9, the world champion preferring to immediately go for a second flying lap.
His engineer, Lambiase was concerned that with the track constantly evolving Verstappen's rivals would improve and that also his (soft) tyres would overheat.
Making it out of Q2 by the skin of his teeth - he was tenth - Verstappen was not happy. "We should have just f****** pushed two laps in a row like I said," he told Lambiase.
"But you are through, Max," came the reply.
"Yeah... I don't give a f***, mate, if I'm through in P10. It was just s*** execution," stormed the Dutchman.
"OK, and then when the track was two seconds quicker for your final lap and you didn't have any energy left, how would that have gone down? But you tell me what you want to do in Q3, and we'll do it. Let me know... sets, fuel, run plan," said Lambiase.
Subsequently, having secured pole by 0.820s, Verstappen's mood had softened.
"Oh, nice gap that! Well, at least we had a good Q3... sorry GP for sending such a... so long a rant," he said.
"I'm slowly getting used to it, Max," replied Lambiase. "That was eight tenths to Leclerc."
"Luckily we've got a few more years together, mate. So, it's all good." laughed the Dutchman.
Asked about the incident, insisted that there was no bad feeling between the pair.
"It happens, sometimes," he said. "Most of it is normally always blocked off. We can both be quite vocal or emotional, but we always solve it afterwards. So, it's all good."
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