© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Max Verstappen has been handed a one-place grid penalty for “driving unnecessarily slowly on a cool down lap” at Qatar Grand Prix Qualifying. George Russell will now start from pole.
Max Verstappen, who qualified on pole for the Qatar Grand Prix, has lost his pole position after being handed a one-place grid penalty and one penalty point for “driving unnecessarily slowly on a cool down lap” in an incident involving George Russell in Q3.
George will now take pole position for the race.
“Car 1 [Verstappen] was on a different preparation strategy to that of Car 63 [Russell]. Car 1 was well outside of the delta and the driver of Car 1 explained he had let Cars 4 and 14 past,” the Stewards’ verdict read.
“The driver of Car 63 claimed that he had adhered to the delta and did not expect Car 1 to be on the racing line.
“He stated that if a car was going slow in a high speed corner, it should not be on the racing line.
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“The Stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly Car 1 did not comply with the Race Director’s Event Notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances.
“It was obvious the driver of Car 1 was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see Car 63 approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12,” the verdict concluded.
Further explaining the penalty, the stewards said:
“Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap. Had Car 63 been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual 3 grid position penalty, however in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 and that neither car was on a push lap.”
