Max Verstappen accused Pierre Gasly of causing a “dangerous” situation shortly before the original start of the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver, who won Sunday’s race, came close to colliding with Franco Colapinto at the exit of turn 14 as the field arrived at the grid at the end of the first formation lap. Verstappen slammed on the brakes but couldn’t avoid passing the Williams and the Haas of Oliver Bearman on its right.A surprised Verstappen exclaimed: “Woah, woah, woah!” on his radio. “The Alpine was stopped there, mate,” he told race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.
“Blind corner, stopped around it, so dangerous.” Nico Hulkenberg also passed the pair, and Verstappen, but made no comment on his radio.
The situation occured as the start of the race was plunged into confusion after Lance Stroll spun and came to a stop on the formation lap. The drivers ahead of Verstappen were preparing to take their places on the grid as he caught up on them.
Gasly had qualified 13th on the grid, four places ahead of Verstappen, and one behind Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull. The Alpine driver did not drop back noticeably far from the cars ahead of him during his progress to his starting position. However he did ask his race engineer John Howard to “check everything is okay at the rear because the steering is a bit bent.”
The other drivers around him were not especially slow to line up either. However several of them took up the wrong starting positions, beginning with Verstappen’s team mate.
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Perez was supposed to line up 12th, directly behind Stroll in 10th, though the Aston Martin was stuck in a gravel trap. Red Bull told Perez a car had stopped, but did not point out it was Stroll, and that the grid slot in front of his would therefore be empty. Perez parked his car in Stroll’s 10th place spot and either did not notice he was in the wrong place or chose not to draw attention to it.
Next, Colapinto re-passed Verstappen and initially pulled up in his correct spot, leaving a gap in front of him where Hamilton’s car should have been. Then he too pulled forwards, prompting Verstappen to observe “Colapinto just parked in the wrong grid spot.”
Verstappen and Hulkenberg’s too-rapid arrival at the rear of the grid appeared to be less a result of this confusion, more due to their pace on the warm-up lap. The Red Bull driver allowed more of a gap to open up in front of him at the exit of the Bico de Pato, the slowest corner on the track, and accelerated almost continuously from Juncao until he reached the back of the grid.
Hulkenberg behind him did much the same, but despite backing off more at turn 13, he was still unable to stop his car before passing three others, including Verstappen’s. Zhou Guanyu followed along behind them more cautiously and made no such mistake.
The original start was then aborted. By the time of the final formation lap, rain had begun to fall and Verstappen, Hulkenberg and the rest approached the grid more cautiously.
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The stewards, seemingly preoccupied by the confusion caused by Stroll’s spin and the front row starters setting off when they weren’t supposed to, did not note any of these incidents as infringements. However had the original race start gone ahead, Perez, Hamilton and Colapinto would have been at risk of penalties for starting in the wrong positions.
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2024 Brazilian Grand Prix
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Jere (@jerejj)
6th November 2024, 12:27
All on Max for not being more prepared for the possibility & thus reducing speed sooner as a precautionary measure.
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
6th November 2024, 14:08
It was a bit ‘Rookie’ flying around the final blind corner in the wet on a formation lap when its obvious there will be a pack of slower cars lining up for the grid…
Jere (@jerejj)
6th November 2024, 19:01
Indeed
Patrick (@paeschli)
7th November 2024, 5:59
Probably more force of habit since he’s used to starting at the front and having a full view of what’s ahead
Palindnilap (@palindnilap)
6th November 2024, 12:34
I hadn’t realised that Perez had committed a parking offense for the second race in succession.
Jere (@jerejj)
6th November 2024, 14:06
Good one
Patrick (@paeschli)
7th November 2024, 6:00
Maybe Perez has been the true rookie this season all along
baasbas
6th November 2024, 14:58
Maybe it is just me, but where exactly is he blaming Gasly?
someone or something
6th November 2024, 15:31
@ baasbas
baasbas
6th November 2024, 15:55
@someone or something
Well, that answers at least part of my question, it ís just me then..
The radio with the images just tell me he got spooked by the Alpine and that is was a dangerous situation. But he is not blaming Gasly for parking there
MacLeod (@macleod)
7th November 2024, 7:53
That is correct he doesn’t blame Gasly only that was a dangerous situation.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
6th November 2024, 17:10
So it looks like this happened just during the formation lap (the blame), otherwise I would’ve said: the podium party is over, it’s now time for the blame games!
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
6th November 2024, 18:06
this site can do better than this, so much better gossip or interesting news out there.
Mayrton
7th November 2024, 8:35
Yes, if I can make a suggestion.. there are quite some elephants in the room that haven’t been addressed, like how did Lando get away with a start infringement? Everybody would be fuming about the leniency granted had that been Max.
And where are the detailed and long articles on the VSC timing in the Sprint or the red flag timing during quali? I am sure that would they have benefitted Max rather than Lando we would have had a vast amount of analysis on this as well.
Bojangles
6th November 2024, 20:25
Click bate article. Please move on…
Jazz (@jazz)
7th November 2024, 2:23
So Verstappen suddenly appreciates what a dangerous move entails having been so devoid of such critical thinking for past ten years. Right, got it. Now go teach The Horndog.
Mayrton
7th November 2024, 8:36
No, this is a fabricated story for click bait and to divert from the FIA hugely favouring the challenger this weekend. It was an embarrassing outing once again.
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
7th November 2024, 8:50
Well just look who is author – that tells you everything you need to know.
Sadly not the first nor the last time – the author has a proven negative trackrecord when it comes to Max.