Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll was unhappy with Max Verstappen after being eliminated in the first round of qualifying for the sprint race.
Stroll wants the stewards to investigate the Red Bull driver for holding him up. However he has already been summoned over a separate matter.
The incident between Stroll and Verstappen occured as the Aston Martin driver was approaching turn 16 at the end of his final flying lap in SQ1. Verstappen remained on the racing line as Stroll swept around him.
When the session ended, Stroll’s lap time of 1’29.028 meant he missed the cut by 0.114 seconds. He was convinced he would have made it through if the Red Bull driver hadn’t held him up.
“We just had traffic the whole way through the lap,” Stroll told the official F1 channel after qualifying. “Verstappen [was] just completely in the middle of the track in the last corner.
“So we had to brake on the inside of the track and we lost like three or four tenths just there. So we’ll see what happens.”
He made it clear he wants the stewards to take a look at the incident. “It just costs you lap time,” he said. “It’s just tenths going out the window.
“I hope they investigate it because if we can just all do that and drive on the line, it’s not so fun for the guys on push-laps. But we’ll see what happens.”
The stewards issued a formal warning to Esteban Ocon for impeding Lando Norris at the same corner during practice. Haas were also fined €7,500 for the incident.
The stewards have not indicated Verstappen is under investigation for impeding Stroll. They have summoned him to meet them for potentially failing to obey the race director’s instructions regarding delta times during SQ3.
Five other drivers – Carlos Sainz Jnr, George Russell, Alexander Albon, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto – have been cleared of similar infringements in sprint race qualifying.
While Stroll dropped out in SQ1, his team mate Fernando Alonso made the cut with a lap of 1’28.455. He went on to reach the final round of sprint race qualifying and took 10th on the grid.
This article will be updated
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