Max Verstappen has received a punishment for an incident during the Miami Grand Prix. Five seconds will be added to his total race time. The penalty has no consequences for Verstappen, as Charles Leclerc was given a heavier penalty. Verstappen therefore retains P5.
Mike van Weert, Tim Hartman
The Red Bull driver allegedly crossed the white line when leaving the pits. After studying the images, this turned out to be the case, as a result of which the four-time world champion was penalized with five seconds.
Verstappen’s battle with George Russell was also under scrutiny. The Mercedes driver damaged his front wing on Verstappen’s rear tire. The drivers agreed afterwards and considered it a racing incident. The competition management agreed.
As a result, Verstappen’s time penalty was limited to five seconds, which has no consequences. Charles Leclerc – who finished just behind the Dutchman in P6 – also received a penalty.
Ferrari’s Monegasque received a so-called drive-through penalty‘, as he went out of bounds several times ‘without good reason’ and thus gained an advantage.
In this case, that translates to a time penalty of 20 seconds, as a driver normally has to drive through the pit lane with such a penalty. This drops Leclerc to eighth place, behind teammate Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto of Alpine.
The race management also looked at the fact that Leclerc finished the last lap with a broken car. However, the stewards decided that the Ferrari was not damaged to such an extent that it created an unsafe situation.
This ends a busy afternoon for the FIA. Alexander Albon, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon were also investigated by the FIA. They were said to have driven too fast under yellow flags, but the race management decided not to punish the drivers.
