‘It’s not qualifying’ – Verstappen and Lambiase’s latest radio tiff
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Not for the first time this season, Verstappen was heard engaging in a frosty debate with his Red Bull race engineer in second practice at Monza. Frustrated that his sole low-fuel run on soft tyres had been hampered by traffic in the middle sector, Verstappen wanted to go for another attempt but saw his request denied by Lambiase. “We’re not going to try again? Because I had a s*** read,” Verstappen questioned. “It’s not qualifying, Max,” Lambiase retorted in a rather dismissive tone.To which, Verstappen responded: “Yeah I know, but I want to have a proper read.”Verstappen, who is hunting for a record-breaking 10th consecutive victory this weekend, ended up an unfamiliar fifth in the timesheets and behind teammate Sergio Perez. As the session came to its conclusion, Lambiase was heard sarcastically asking Verstappen: “Did you learn anything?”“No, not really,” the two-time world champion replied, before Lambiase responded: “Well done.”
Verstappen and Lambiase made headlines for their confrontational radio messages – including an expletive-laden rant during qualifying – that were broadcast across the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. “That’s how we operate,” Verstappen told Sky F1 in Belgium. “I think we know each other very well from all the years we have been working together.” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also downplayed the heated exchanges at the time. Related Explained: Mercedes wing experiments influenced Hamilton’s deficit to Russell Red Bull fined for Verstappen blunder in second practice”I think to race engineer Max Verstappen, you’ve got to have strength of character because he is one tough customer,” Horner said.”Many race engineers would crumble under that pressure and GP has got the strength of character to deal with that.”He deals with him firmly, but fairly and there’s a great respect between the two of them. That comes out of a mutual trust that you must have with an engineer.”The only problem is that conversation between the two of them has 200 million people listening, but there’s a great bond between the two of them and a great trust between the two.”
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