Max Verstappen was handed a penalty by race stewards in the aftermath of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was given a 10-second time penalty after the race, for being at fault in the collision that occurred on Lap 37 with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, when he was told to concede his position.
Hamilton damaged his front wing during the incident but still managed to cross the finish line in first to win the race.
There were many comments on who was at fault in post-race interviews with Hamilton claiming Verstappen had “brake tested” him, and said the Red Bull driver was “over the limit”.
Meanwhile, a furious Verstappen said: “What happened today is unbelievable and this sport is more about penalties than racing.
“For me, this is not Formula 1.”
Luckily for the Red Bull driver, he will remain in second place so the two title contenders are still level on points heading into next weekend’s season closer.
Aside from the 10-second penalty, he was also issued two penalty points on his licence.
In a statement after a decision was made, the Stewards said that Verstappen “braked in a manner which caused a collision”.
“The stewards heard from the driver of Car 33, the driver of Car 44 and team representatives, reviewed the video and telemetry evidence and determined that the driver of Car 33 was predominantly at fault,” their statement said.
“At turn 21 the driver of Car 33 was given the instruction to give back a position to Car 44 and was told by the team to do so “strategically”. Car 33 slowed significantly at turn 26. However, it was obvious that neither driver wanted to take the lead prior to DRS detection line 3.
“The driver of car 33 stated that he was wondering why Car 44 had not overtaken and the driver of Car 44 stated that, not having been aware at that stages that Car 33 was giving the position back, was unaware of the reason Car 33 was slowing. In deciding to penalise the driver of Car 33, the key point for the stewards was that the driver of Car 33 then braked suddenly and significantly, resulting in 2.4g deceleration.
“Whilst accepting that the driver of Car 44 could have overtaken Car 33 when that car first slowed, we understand why he (and the driver of Car 33) did not want to be the first to cross the DRS.
“However, the sudden breaking by the driver of Car 33 was determined by the Stewards to be erratic and hence the predominant cause of the collision and hence the standard penalty of 10 seconds for this type of incident, is imposed.
