Lando Norris couldn’t hide his disbelief after Max Verstappen told him what punishment Charles Leclerc had received for driving into him in

practice.

The incident, which happened towards the end of the last practice session on Saturday, was described as an instance of “road rage” by TV pundits. Leclerc, unhappy that he had been blocked by the McLaren while on a flying lap, appeared to sweep across the track and drive into Norris on purpose.

The Briton was stunned and reported over the radio that he had suffered damage to his front wing as a result of the collision. The Ferrari driver argued, though, that he had simply “misjudged the position of his car”.

Leclerc was reprimanded by the stewards but avoided sporting penalty for his actions. And the same decision was made for Lance Stroll after a similar incident which saw the Aston Martin driver make contact with Lewis Hamilton in the same session.

Those decisions only came in shortly before the start of qualifying. So it was only after Norris had snatched pole from Verstappen that he learned that Leclerc had got away with the contact earlier in the day.

And he couldn’t hide his surprise as it was the Dutchman who delivered the news, in a conversation which was recorded by a phone camera close by. Verstappen can be heard saying: “It’s quite crazy [Leclerc] got a reprimand.”

A wide-eyed Norris responded with incredulity: “That’s what he got?” When Verstappen confirmed that to him, the Briton was still wearing a confused expression as he added: “My whole front wing was f***ed.”

Fortunately for Norris, the incident clearly didn’t put him off. After pipping Verstappen to pole by just two-hundredths of a second, the Briton declared that he had produced “probably my best lap ever” to get the better of his rival and make sure that, for only the second time in his F1 career, he would start a Grand Prix at the very front.

Meanwhile, Leclerc continued to insist after the session that he did not make contact on purpose. He said: “I braked to be alongside him and I misjudged. So I was on the right, I didn’t want to impede either the cars behind, so I was a bit in the middle by being frustrated and looking in the mirror. It was very dangerous to try and not impede, and then we collided. But it was a misunderstanding more than anything.

“You’re always frustrated when you [are impeded], but you never want to touch, because obviously, in FP3, that’s the last thing you want to do, to damage the car, first of all, because I’ve got qualifying right after. So it’s never the goal.”