Verstappen, who was narrowly beaten to pole position by Sebastian Vettel at the end of the session, backed out of his first attempt in Q3, meaning he was caught by Bottas entering the final stadium section of the lap.

The Red Bull driver stayed to the left of the track exiting the Turn 12 right-hander that takes the cars into the stadium, but Bottas came very close to making contact with Verstappen as he swept from that side of the track to the right-hand side for the following corner.

Bottas locked up at the left-hand hairpin that followed, and he abandoned the lap, meaning he only had one attempt to decide his grid position with his second run.

"I could see before the last sector that he was quite slow," Bottas told TV crews after qualifying fourth.

"He was just going slowly at the exit of Turn 12 and compromised my line a little bit for 13, and I had a lock-up there, so it definitely ruined my lap."

The Finn added that he had to take slightly more care on his second run to make sure he got a clean lap in, "because I only had one lap before that and that was wrecked".

When asked if he felt Verstappen deserved a penalty for impeding him, Bottas said: "I don’t know. It’s not up to me.

"I don’t know what the rulebook exactly says. What I know is it ruined my lap and I only had one attempt in Q3 instead of two."

However, when pushed on the subject again by more TV reporters, he said: "I think so."

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff declined to say if Verstappen should be punished, but he told Sky Sports the incident "certainly" destroyed Bottas’s lap.