Max Verstappen asked a journalist to leave his Thursday media briefing at the Japanese Grand Prix, with the Dutchman still upset over a question asked by the same reporter in December about an incident that potentially cost him a fifth straight drivers' title.
“I'm not speaking before he's leaving,” said Verstappen as he sat down to take questions in Red Bull’s hospitality area at the Suzuka circuit ahead of the third race of the season, asking the journalist to “get out”.
“Now we can start,” he added after the reporter left.
Verstappen had already clashed with the journalist following December’s Abu Dhabi season finale after losing the title to McLaren’s Lando Norris by just two points.
The reporter had asked Verstappen if in hindsight he regretted an incident with Mercedes driver George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix in June for which the Dutchman was given a 10-second penalty that dropped him from fifth to 10th and cost him nine precious points.
"You forget all the other stuff that happened in my season. The only thing you mention is Barcelona. I knew that would come. You're giving me a stupid grin now," Verstappen had responded at the time.
"It's part of racing at the end. You live and learn. The championship is one of 24 rounds. I've also had a lot of early Christmas presents given to me in the second half (of the season), so you can also question that," he had added.
The rest of Verstappen’s press conference proceeded without incident. The 28-year-old cut a relaxed figure as he fielded questions about his recent participation in a sports car race at Germany’s Nurburgring Nordschleife and an outing in a Japanese Super GT car at the Fuji racetrack.
Verstappen, eighth in the overall standings after a sixth-place finish in Australia and retirement in China, has had a difficult start to the season.
Frank, forthright and fiercely competitive, he has been among the strongest critics of the sport’s new power unit rules.
“This is the reality that we are in now,” he said on Thursday.
“You just have to accept that at the moment.”