Max Verstappen will receive an automatic race ban if he collects a single penalty point over either of the next two rounds.
The Spanish Grand Prix stewards issued three penalty points to him for colliding with George Russell during the race.
Verstappen slowed to let Russell pass him after being instructed to by his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. Red Bull believed Verstappen was in danger of receiving a penalty for leaving the track while fighting Russell for position at turn one. However the stewards later ruled Verstappen had been forced off the track and did not need to give up the place.
The stewards acknowledged this in their decision on the turn five collision, for which they held Verstappen entirely responsible.
“From the radio communications, it was clear that the driver of car one [Verstappen] was asked by his team to ‘give the position back’ to car 63 [Russell] for what they perceived to be an earlier breach by car one for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage (in fact, we had later determined that we would take no further action in relation to that incident).
“The driver of car one was clearly unhappy with his team’s request to give the position back. At the approach to turn five, car one significantly reduced its speed thereby appearing to allow car 63 to overtake. However, after car 63 got ahead of car one at the entry of turn five, car one suddenly accelerated and collided with car 63.
“The collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of car one. We therefore imposed a 10-second time penalty on car one.”
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Max Verstappen’s penalty points
| Date | Event | Session | Infringement | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30/6/2024 | Austrian Grand Prix | ‘Collision between Car 1 and Car 4 in turn 3.’ | 2 | |
| 27/10/2024 | Mexican Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Forcing another driver off the track.’ | 2 |
| 2/11/2024 | Brazilian Grand Prix | Sprint race | ‘The driver was above the minimum time at VSC End.’ | 1 |
| 1/12/2024 | Qatar Grand Prix | Qualifying | ‘Car 1 drove unnecessarily slowly on a cool down lap.’ | 1 |
| 8/12/2024 | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Car 1 caused a collision with Car 81 in turn 1.’ | 2 |
| 1/6/2025 | Spanish Grand Prix | Grand prix | ‘Car 1 caused a collision with Car 63 in turn five’ | 3 |
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Penalty box
Did the stewards issue the correct penalty for Verstappen’s clash with Russell at turn five? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Verstappen’s penalty for colliding with Russell was:
- No opinion (0%)
- Far too lenient (65%)
- Slightly too lenient (18%)
- Correct (13%)
- Slightly too harsh (2%)
- Far too harsh (2%)
Total Voters: 260
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