No penalty for Max Verstappen after sprint qualifying incident

Max Verstappen has escaped a grid drop for Saturday’s Miami Grand Prix sprint race after an investigation into his outlap, with his Red Bull Formula 1 team handed a reprimand instead.

At the end of the first qualifying phase Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll encountered Verstappen on the racing line on Miami’s main straight heading into the final hairpin, with the Canadian having to swerve around the Red Bull into the braking zone.

At the time Stroll slammed the incident as “dangerous” on the team radio, and with just one tenth separating him from SQ2 he felt it cost him a spot in the next stage.

Verstappen, who ended up qualifying fourth behind shock polesitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli and both McLaren drivers, was summoned to the stewards for allegedly driving unnecessarily slowly.

The FIA’s sporting regulations stipulate that “at no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person.” The race director event notes expand on that to avoid dangerous situations at any point during qualifying sessions, with race control imposing a maximum lap time of 1m45 for the Miami weekend based on practice times.

After speaking to the Dutchman and a team representative the stewards determined that Verstappen was six seconds above said maximum delta time, which the team explained was a programming error on his dashboard showing the wrong time.

Because Verstappen otherwise managed his speed consistently and the stewards felt he didn’t cause a dangerous situation, they judged penalising Verstappen himself was not necessary, but the onus was on his team to supply the correct information. Therefore, Red bull itself gets a reprimand rather than the world champion.

In their full verdict the FIA race stewards explained their decision making: “Car 1 was around 6 seconds above the required minimum time between Safety Car Lines 1 and 2 for one lap in SQ2 but complied with the requirement in all other laps. Telemetry showed that the driver was driving with a constant speed throughout the lap without any other cars around as if he was managing the delta at approx. 6 seconds off the relevant number.

“During the hearing the team stated that due to a false programming in the car the delta time displayed in the car had an offset of 6 seconds and whilst the driver was managing the delta displayed, he was constantly approx. 6 seconds above the minimum time. The team identified the problem by the end of the first cool-down lap and immediately instructed the driver to manage his speed in a way that he would be min. 6 seconds below the delta time displayed in the car, which he did in all following laps. This was confirmed by the telemetry.

“The Stewards acknowledge that, whilst there has been a breach of the regulations, VER did not drive “unnecessarily slowly” based on the information he had in the car and did not impede any other cars or create any dangerous situation and therefore determine that a penalty for the driver is not warranted. However, a Reprimand to the team is issued as they are responsible for ensuring that correct timing information is displayed in the car. It is worth noting that in different circumstances a more severe penalty might be applied for a similar infringement.”

Verstappen keeps his fourth place in the grid for Saturday’s 19-lap sprint, while Stroll starts down in 16th.