Max Verstappen grid penalty explained as Red Bull star loses Qatar Grand Prix pole
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Max Verstappen has been stripped of his pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix for impeding George Russell during qualifying on Saturday.
Verstappen pipped Russell to pole for Sunday's race by just 0.055 seconds, after the two cars came together at Turn 12.
Russell drove onto the gravel to avoid colliding into the Red Bull car and complained on team radio of 'super dangerous' driving from his rival.
Speaking after qualifying, Russell claimed that the incident ultimately cost him a chance at pole.
Max Verstappen has lost his pole position
REUTERS
"Obviously, I had a really scrappy out-lap with the near-collision with Max, and I ended up going through the gravel two corners prior to opening my lap," he said.
"So it was not a good start. So that was probably the 55 milliseconds.”
The stewards reviewed the incident after qualifying and ended up penalising Verstappen for breaking the rules.
Verstappen was been bumped down to second with Russell now starting on pole for the Qatar Grand Prix.
Their ruling said: "The stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly [Verstappen] did not comply with the race director's event notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances.
"It was obvious [Verstappen] was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see [Russell] approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times while on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12.
"Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap.
"Had [Russell] been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three-grid position penalty.
Max Verstappen was penalised for driving too slowly
REUTERS
"However, in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that [Russell] had clear visibility of [Verstappen]."
The newly-crowned world champion appeared nonchalant about being penalised for his incident with Russell.
When asked whether the penalty will affect his race, Verstappen replied: "Not really.
"We will try to fight for the win. It's one place back but let's see how it goes."
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George Russell will now start from pole
REUTERS
But Jenson Button felt the judgement was harsh on Verstappen giving other drivers were also going slowly.
He said: "The problem for me is that he’s got Fernando Alonso in front of him doing exactly the same speed.
"It’s not like Max has just gone, ‘I’m going to put the anchors on, hit the brakes right in the middle of a high-speed corner.’
"He’s got the same distance to the car in front the whole way through turns 12 and 13, so it’s shocking to me that he got a penalty."
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