Mexican Grand Prix
FIA hit Verstappen with huge DOUBLE penalty after controversial Norris incident at Mexican GP
Red Bull star Max Verstappen has been slapped with a HUGE 20-second time penalty at the Mexican Grand Prix after yet more hard racing with Formula 1 championship rival Lando Norris.
After the pair were embroiled in controversy at the United States Grand Prix last weekend, the drama has continued in Mexico City on Sunday, with the pair going wheel-to-wheel in the early stages at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
However, whilst it was Norris who was hit with a time penalty in Austin, Verstappen has been judged to be the guilty party on this occasion. He was initially given a 10-second penalty for forcing his McLaren rival off the track at Turn 4, before being hit with another 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage at Turn 8.
In typical Verstappen fashion, in response to being told of his first punishment over team radio, the Dutchman replied: “10!? That’s quite impressive.”
The FIA have punished Max Verstappen’s aggressive racing in Mexico
Verstappen and Lando Norris caused controversy after a hard battle last weekend in the US
Max Verstappen hit with double punishment
Just laps later, more bad news for the three-time champion arrived, with the sport’s governing body opting to add yet another 10-second penalty on top of his original punishment.
This time, Verstappen was judged to have left the track and gained an advantage. In further disagreement with the FIA, Verstappen slammed the second punishment as ‘silly’ over team radio when informed of it by his race engineer.Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle was clear in his verdict, however.”I had a feeling he would have something else coming his way,” Brundle said live on air after news of the second penalty.
“The first one was rude and cheeky, the second one was just plain dangerous.”That’s just about a full pit stop, for a penalty.”Lando Norris himself agreed, also branding his rival’s moves as ‘dangerous’.
