Instead, the dominant Dutchman's performance engineer, Tom Hart, had taken Lambiase's seat on the pit wall and was guiding Verstappen through a rather disjointed session.
Gianpiero Lambiase has become an important part of Max Verstappen's successMax Verstappen is a three-time world champion with Red BullMax Verstappen has been known to be quite vocal over his team radio
Verstappen and Lambiase like a married couple
Verstappen will be glad to hear that Lambiase is fully expected to be back for qualifying and the race at the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, meaning we will likely be able to hear a fair amount of arguing between the pair.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner recently joked that Lambiase and Verstappen were like a married couple, and had been sent for marriage counselling during the summer break earlier this year.
Indeed, Verstappen has been known to have some rather choice words for his engineer during races, but has a very good relationship with GP off the track.