Official: Max Verstappen penalized one position, Qatar pole goes to George Russell. A one-position penalty for Max Verstappen in Qatar.

The Stewards’ Explanation
A one-position penalty. This is the decision made by the Stewards in Qatar against Max Verstappen, who lost the pole position for the Qatar GP. The pole position was inherited by George Russell, who had been beaten by 55 milliseconds on track.

The Stewards decided to penalize Max Verstappen because he exceeded the delta time while attempting to sufficiently cool his tires to bring them to optimal temperature for another attack on George Russell’s pole position, which he ultimately succeeded in doing. In the process of cooling his tires, Verstappen allowed other drivers to pass. However, the data showed that Verstappen disregarded the delta time, becoming an obstacle to a driver who was trying to comply with it.

Since it was merely a warm-up lap for both drivers, the Stewards opted for a single-position penalty instead of the more typical three-position drop. Below is the official document.