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FORMULA 1
AP PHOTO/ETTORE CHIEREGUINI
Interglaxos GP stewards have announced that Max Verstappen has been handed a 5-second penalty for a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) incident in today’s Sprint race.
That five-second penalty means the Dutchman drops from 3rd to 4th in the final sprint standings, behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – meaning the 26-year-old Red Bull driver has lost another point in the title battle with Lando Norris, Sprint winner.
The reason for the penalty has to do with Verstappen’s breach of the regulations that exist under the Virtual Safety Vehicle regime.
In particular, in the 20th of the 24 laps of the Brazilian Sprint, a VSC regime was imposed to remove the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg from the edge of the track, after a mechanical problem with the car.
The regulation defines exactly how much distance one car must have from another under the VSC regime, as well as the lap time that – with a small deviation – each driver must keep.
However, just seconds before the VSC regime expired Verstappen found himself within touching distance and then next to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, breaking the rule.
Realizing that he had rushed to catch Piastri, Max then again left the required distance from the Australian’s McLaren. And then the VSC regime ended and the drivers got back into racing rhythm.
Beyond that, however, the stewards found after the end of the Sprint race that Verstappen was outside the lap time limits when the VSC regime ended.
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