Max Verstappen says the stewards should delete his fastest lap time if they find he failed to slow for yellow flags at the end of the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver took pole position for tomorrow’s race. However footage of his final lap showed yellow flags were waving as he passed the scene of Valtteri Bottas’s crash on his final lap.Asked if he thought the stewards might take action over the incident Verstappen said: “Well then delete my lap. The other lap was fine.”
“I think we know what we’re doing otherwise we wouldn’t be driving an F1 car,” he added. “It’s qualifying, you go for it and like I said before if they want to delete the lap then delete the lap.”
Verstappen improved his lap time from 1’14.910 to 1’14.758 with his final run. The next-fastest lap of the session was Charles Leclerc’s 1’15.024, so Verstappen would keep his pole position even if his best lap time was deleted.
However at least one other driver, Sebastian Vettel, backed off significantly as he passed the yellow flags and did not improve his lap time as a result.
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“That was a shame,” said Vettel on the radio. “Would have been a good lap, that.”
The last F1 driver to be penalised for failing to slow for yellow flags during a qualifying session was Verstappen, during last year’s Russian Grand Prix. He was given a three-place grid penalty and two penalty points on his licence.
Three F2 drivers were investigated for the same infringement at Spa this year. Two of them also received three-place grid penalties while a third, Jack Aitken, escaped punishment after the stewards ruled he “had no realistic chance to slow down more than he did” under the circumstances.
Formula 1’s television graphics indicate Verstappen did not improve his time through the last of the 23 ‘mini-sectors’ at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. He set the fastest time of the session through the penultimate mini-sector.
The stewards have issued a provisional classification for qualifying and have not indicated Verstappen’s driving is under investigation.
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hahostolze (@hahostolze)
26th October 2019, 21:22
He’s honest, but he’s a fool. Hope they strip his time and give him a penalty.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
26th October 2019, 21:27
@hahostolze For an interesting race, I hope he keeps pole but for clearly braking the rules he should get a grid drop. Very wrong message if he keeps his time.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
26th October 2019, 21:37
@hahostolze agreed. Anyway he got away with austria, vettel got away with a jump start and 2 years ago max almost got away with overtaking a car by cutting a corner so nothing surprises me.
I had him on my predictions champ but I do hope he gets a penalty, traditionally this is the case.
F1oSaurus (@)
27th October 2019, 15:06
@peartree Verstappen actually won “overtake of the year” going completely off track a few years ago
Mioki (@okif1)
26th October 2019, 21:48
No need to go to F2 to get some examples. Ericsson received a 5 seconds penalty for ignoring yellow flags in China 2018. Since it is a safety violation maybe some points could be also taken from his license.
David BR (@david-br)
26th October 2019, 22:58
@hahostolze Sums it up. The penalty, if applied, is for unsafe driving not for an unfair lap time. The crash was in a dangerous spot, heavy and partly on track. Obvious he had to lift and a clear penalty situation if he didn’t.
Patrick (@anunaki)
26th October 2019, 21:22
FIA already said Max lifted in the mini sector
That’s the end of this discussion
Patrick (@anunaki)
26th October 2019, 21:23
There’s data available online showing he’s yellow in the last mini sector
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
26th October 2019, 21:25
That literally doesn’t mean anything. He had 6 yellow mini-sectors on that lap.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th October 2019, 21:39
@carbon_fibre
Yellow-flags are only active between two consecutive trackside light-panels. In this case, between light-panels 15 and 1
file:///C:/Users/Jerejj/Downloads/doc_1_-_2019_mexican_grand_prix_-_circuit_map%20(1).pdf
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
27th October 2019, 1:15
whoosh
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
26th October 2019, 21:24
He admits he didn’t slow down. What other indication do the stewards need?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izaqAhbg-wU
MacLeod (@macleod)
26th October 2019, 23:04
Formula 1’s television graphics indicate Verstappen did not improve his time through the last of the 23 ‘mini-sectors’ at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. He set the fastest time of the session through the penultimate mini-sector.
I think that is the end of it
F1oSaurus (@)
27th October 2019, 15:07
@macleod He’s supposed to slow down. It’s not about not setting the fastest time of the session at that moment.
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th October 2019, 8:00
to be honest the only think he could do was bracking as he saw the yellow when he came around the corner and that was 4 m from the wreck and he was past it in less then a second. But it’s histori never mind.
Mark Saunders (@mcs1)
26th October 2019, 21:24
Verstappen is an idiot for understanding this is a safety issue. It’ not just about drivers, this could have been a marshal or spectator on the track. His car could have failed, tyre blown and hit Bottas. Just stupid.
Eathan
26th October 2019, 21:31
Max has already said he didn’t lift, so no, that’s not the end of this discussion. He clearly broke the rules, he’s admitted to breaking the rules, so he should be penalised accordingly.
HJ
26th October 2019, 21:31
Haha. He doesn’t give a ….
Brilliant!
DAllein (@)
26th October 2019, 21:39
He is a m0ron.
HJ
26th October 2019, 21:49
He didn’t do anything wrong. The data showed he slowed down. Some people here just make a lot of drama when Max is involved. It’s really funny.
The only one who made a clear mistake was good, old Valteri.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
26th October 2019, 21:59
The timing data shows he didn’t improve in the final mini sector but that doesn’t necessarily mean he slowed down, Could simply mean that he made a small mistake.
In fact both Max’s own words as well as the OnBoard video and telemetry data seem to show that he didn’t life of the throttle in the yellow flag zone and therefore didn’t slow down.
HJ
26th October 2019, 22:07
Well, he has to explain himself at the steward’s office. So maybe I was a bit fast with my comment.
We’ll see…
Ninjenius (@ninjenius)
26th October 2019, 22:05
Of course he’s going to say delete the lap, because if that’s all the stewards do then he would still have pole from his first Q3 lap.
Alternatively, the very real threat of receiving a grid penalty? Pretty sure then he would give a …
HJ
26th October 2019, 22:11
In that case he will…
I already assumed he had poleposition and there was no further investigation. But things change fast in F1 these days. Even hours after quali ot the race…
JohnNik (@johnnik)
26th October 2019, 21:32
What an arrogant attitude, thinking he can dictate the penalty.
He knows what the penalty is, having served it before. If ha killed a Marshall I wonder if he would be so flippant to just say “well delete that lap”.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
26th October 2019, 22:02
@johnnik very very arrogant, to the point where he won’t change until he puts someone in a hospital. FIA have a job of teaching him a lesson before it’s too late.
MacLeod (@macleod)
26th October 2019, 23:05
they said that 5 years ago so did he change no he stays like this.
F1oSaurus (@)
27th October 2019, 15:09
@macleod He actually changed a lot. Still, it’s not enough apparently.
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th October 2019, 8:01
lets hope he never change otherwise racing gets boring.
F1oSaurus (@)
28th October 2019, 17:05
@macleod Yeah it would be boring if he actually became WDC by maximising race results rather than going 110% and ending up with half the race wins he could actually achieve.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th October 2019, 21:34
”Formula 1’s television graphics indicate Verstappen did not improve his time through the last of the 23 ‘mini-sectors’ at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. He set the fastest time of the session through the penultimate mini-sector.”
– That’s it. End of discussion.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th October 2019, 21:35
BTW: ”The last F1 driver to be penalised for failing to slow for yellow flags during a qualifying session was Verstappen, during last year’s Russian Grand Prix. He was given a three-place grid penalty and two penalty points on his licence.”
– I don’t recall him getting a grid-penalty for something like this in Russia last season, though. What he got instead was a massive grid-drop penalty for exceeding PU-element allocations (tactical) along with his then-teammate Ricciardo and both STRs.
Mioki (@okif1)
26th October 2019, 21:52
It is not a matter of taking advantage from going outside the track, it is not a matter of taking any advantage, it is a completely different thing. It is about a safety violation, and that involves points in the license and grid penalties.
John H (@john-h)
26th October 2019, 23:52
Er, no it isn’t!
carbon_fibre (@carbon_fibre)
26th October 2019, 21:37
I don’t understand. Why are the stewards so tentative announcing an investigation for this? Instead they like to pretend that they’re working by investigating that silly tassle between Ricciardo and Kvyat in Q1. Seriously, what is going on?
DAllein (@)
26th October 2019, 21:39
*facepalm*
I**t, want to participate in some crash like Correa?
Lenny (@leonardodicappucino)
26th October 2019, 21:51
He’s being way too blasé about safety here. At the point of seeing yellow flags, he doesn’t know where Bottas is. Bottas could have easily been pushed out by that TecPro barrier just onto the racing line, and if you don’t slow down, you don’t have enough time to avoid that, and we would have had a massive shunt. Honestly, with what’s happened this year, you cannot be lax on safety for the sake of the show. I saw someone saying Hamilton also didn’t lift, I’m not entirely sure about either of them, but the FIA has to investigate it. If they find that they lifted sufficiently, then so be it. Otherwise it has to be a grid drop.
MacLeod (@macleod)
26th October 2019, 23:07
He saw 1 flag waving and the onboard i saw also 1 flag just in front of the crashed car.
chris (@)
27th October 2019, 7:43
If Bottas was in the middle of the track the FIA should be waving red flags.
Not defending Max, he should have slowed preparing to stop and deserves a harsher penalty, but he’s interpreting things to give himself the best advantage.
Like many young adults he thinks he knows best, what he doesn’t realise is that the fia will impose arbitrary rules until he conforms.
BlueChris (@bluechris)
26th October 2019, 21:54
I saw tweets from people in there and they say FIA summoned now Verstappen to speak to them mainly because of what he said in the interview, they rethinking what they will do.
To me if the above is true its a joke. Man up guys, either penalise the guy in the 1st place or never. The onboard shows he is full throttle passing Bottas where Vettel instead lifted.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
26th October 2019, 22:06
@bluechris Don’t you think that expression of disregard for safety is enough of a reason to re-open an investigation? Maybe with adrenaline and only 0.5sec to make a decision on the track could be forgiveable. But an hour later out of the car to say that?
BlueChris (@bluechris)
26th October 2019, 22:02
Yeap its true
https://www.fia.com/file/104505/download/29675
Bart
26th October 2019, 22:06
If the stewards do not penalize this I believe it is because of the position on track Verstappen had when approaching the crash scene. He was well away from the left side and it was clear that he could (and did) pass the crash scene safely.
He was much further away from the incident than f.i. Giovinazzi was with the crane incident in Singapore.
Vettel OTOH was on a trajectory that brought him dangerously close to Bottas if he had not lifted. As the Ferrari has less downforce (and more power!) he could not run the exit as tight as Max did. So he lifted, which in his case was the only right thing to do.
One could argue that Max also had to lift because you have to lift at yellow – but I believe that’s only true when a double yellow is shown, which AFAIK wasn’t the case here, unlike the infamous Rosberg incident – which also happened in a sequence of corners, while this was past the exit of a corner.
Two things are important in this case:
– Did Verstappen break the rules, e.g. was he required to lift when shown single yellow? Was he just required to not set a faster mini section time, and did he comply?
– Did Verstappen put anyone in danger by not lifting, was his trajectory such that he could not power past without creating risk?
If both questions get answered with a No, there’s no reason for punishment.
Ivan Vinitskyy (@ivan-vinitskyy)
26th October 2019, 22:13
“Did Verstappen put anyone in danger by not lifting” – yes! He had no idea where Bottas was. What if Merc fluids were on the track and Max had driven over it and crashed into Bottas? Did Max know the marshals weren’t on the track to recover Bottas? Max knew nothing, that’s why you slow down. You don’t start thinking about all the above, there just isn’t time.
It really isn’t about whether it was safe or not. It’s too late to take action after someone gets hurt.
Bart
26th October 2019, 22:26
You should really watch the onboard… Compare with Vettel.
Anyway, my first part stands: did he break the rules or not?
The stewards are investigating that now:
“Alleged breach of Appendix H, Article 2.4.5.1 b of the FIA International Sporting
Code, failure to slow for yellow flags in turn 17 at 14:00.”
We’ll see.
Bart
26th October 2019, 22:53
Apparently, even under a single yellow flag a driver is required to reduce speed and be prepared to take evasive action if necessary. While the evasive action wasn’t necessary, Max did not significantly reduce speed so I expect a penalty of some kind.
Last year Max got a 3 place grid penalty and 2 points for ignoring yellow flags in Sochi. That may well happen here too.
We’ll see.
GtisBetter (@)
26th October 2019, 22:13
Seems like an easy call. Yellow flags were shown, driver say he did not lift, precedent is 3 places grid penalty.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
26th October 2019, 22:48
Love the maroons claiming end of discussion.
“Verstappen improved his lap time from 1’14.910 to 1’14.758 with his final run. The next-fastest lap of the session was Charles Leclerc’s 1’15.024, so Verstappen would keep his pole position even if his best lap time was deleted.”
So the maroons are trying to argue that VER posted the fastest lap of the day, 1’14.7, whilst lifting on the final corners where the yellow flags were waving. He must have been on pace for a 1’13 lap. LEC was 2nd best at 1’15 on a lap where there wasn’t a yellow so he is at least 2 seconds slower that VER.
Ickx
26th October 2019, 23:21
Re-watching the onboard on F1TV there is no way he goes off throttle past the yellows.
AliceD (@aliced)
27th October 2019, 6:53
So someone else’s life is of no importance to Max as long as he gets his little trophy?