One week on, Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko is still enraged over McLaren's radio message to Lando Norris during qualifying for the Portuguese GP.
Norris was warned in Q3 by the McLaren pitwall that Red Bull's Max Verstappen was on a flyer and fast approaching.
The papaya crew subsequently asked its driverr "not to do him any favours", impying that Norris avoid giving the Dutchman a tow down the main straight to boost his chances of pole.
But Marko interpreted the message as an order to impede the Red Bull driver. "Very sporting of the Mercedes team", a sarcastic Marko commented during the live TV broadcast.
Norris laughed off Marko's comments, but a week later, the Austrian is still fuming.
"That [radio message] has to be seen in context," Marko told F1-Insider.com. "Max is on his fastest lap and when such a radio message comes, then it is clear that one is annoyed about it.
"Sebastian [Vettel] was decisively in the way on the last corner, and that didn't help to improve our position either. And if you get angry, you have to be able to say that too."
Marko went as far as to suggest that had it been a Mercedes driver on a flyer at Portimão, the message from the McLaren pitwall would have been very different.
"They would have said: 'do Hamilton a favor,'" Marko contended.
The 78-year-old former racer is nevertheless upbeat about Red Bull's chances of success this weekend in Spain, on a track that offers more "normal" characteristics.
"We had three tracks that cannot be described as characteristic," Marko said.
"Bahrain was exceptional because of the temperature, Imola because of the rain and in Portugal because of the track surface, which had very little grip.
"In Barcelona we come to a characteristically normal racetrack with normal temperature for the first time."
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