As the saying goes, there’s no two without three. Following the two penalties for the borderline contacts with Lando Norris in the opening laps at the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, the stewards have imposed another sanction on Max Verstappen at the conclusion of the Mexican Grand Prix.
It was a Sunday that the Dutch superstar will want to forget quickly, as the cumulative 20 seconds (ten for pushing Norris off the track and another ten for gaining an advantage in Turn 7) served during the pit stop left him finishing only in sixth place, losing important points in the championship race against the McLaren driver.
Also two points on Max Verstappen’s superlicense
For the first incident in Turn 4, the three-time world champion was initially penalized with a time penalty. However, after the race, the stewards revised their decision, adding two penalty points to his superlicense.
With this additional penalty, Max Verstappen now has six points accumulated over the past twelve months, but still has six tokens available before facing a race ban, similar to what happened to Kevin Magnussen in Baku.
“Honestly, 20 seconds is a lot, but I won’t cry about it and I won’t share my opinion either,” the Dutch star explained after the race, commenting on the heavy penalty received.
“The biggest issue I faced today was that it was a negative day in terms of race pace. This was evident both on the medium and hard tires.”
“I just thought the penalty in Turn 4 was a bit more of a question mark. In Turn 7, it was what it was,” he added.
“Honestly, these two things aren’t my problem. The problem is that we are too slow, and that’s why I end up in those positions. That is my problem.”
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