[Keith Collantine]

Max Verstappen was very unhappy with the drive-through penalty he received during the third FIA F3 race at the Red Bull Ring today:

I guess you are not allowed to race anymore these days!! it's absolutely a joke what they descided! That's all I want to say about race 3!

— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) August 3, 2014

The trouble began after Verstappen made an audacious pass on Antonio Fuoco, but ran wide, only for Fuoco to damage his car as he re-passed Verstappen. Verstappen later took the place back but the pair made wheel-to-wheel contact as he did:

(Also have a look at 20:52 for a highly unusual incident involving Michele Beretta and Hector Hurst!)

Judging by the tweets from the series’ official account it seems the penalty came about partly because of both incidents:

@VerstappenNL The stewards also decide the drive through regarding the second action, on the straight line. It's for both actions.

— Formula_EM (@Formula_EM_) August 3, 2014

@VerstappenNL And also a dangerous move

— Formula_EM (@Formula_EM_) August 3, 2014

Verstappe missed out on an opportunity to capitalise as championship leader Esteban Ocon was one of several drivers hit with a drive-through penalty during the race for failing to respect yellow flags.

[Keith Collantine]

Ocon also spoiled his run in race two with this careless bit of defending against Felix Rosenqvist:

[Mathers]

I think perhaps the penalty was a little harsh, but either way I love the official twitter account of the championship giving the reasons for the penalty, it is just something that will help the fans understand a little bit better what the issue was, which is great!

[Magnificent Geoffrey]

Word of advice to young hot-shot drivers: if you’re going to make a risky pass like that, make sure you don’t give the stewards any reason to get funny with you about it.

[Force Maikel]

This decision is stupidity of the highest degree, F1 is going soft on penalties but in F3 the repression is taking on weird forms.

[Keith Collantine]

What’s also interesting if you watch the replay is how quickly they decide some of the penalties – considerably faster than F1 usually is.

[George]

Just watched the two passes, to me the first one looked fine, Fuoco saw him coming but misjudged the undercut. The second one was certainly pretty bad, you cant move across like that when you’re not fully ahead. If Latifi had been slightly further up on Fuoco there could have been an almighty accident.

[AdrianMorse]

I think the stewarding was a bit dubious here. Two moves that do not constitute a penalty by themselves, constitute a penalty together?

Verstappen’s second move reminds me a bit of the Perez – Massa incident in Canada. It doesn’t look like he actually turns right, but he does not curve left as much as the track does. I’m not sure it should be a penalty, but I agree it was a little dangerous.

[andae23]

Trying to be as unbiased as possible, I think this decision is ridiculous. Looking at both incidents: Fuoco drove into the back of Verstappen, after which Verstappen gave back the place, which was fair. Then the next lap, Verstappen is ahead of Fuoco when they touch. Verstappen moves a little bit over to the inside line, but not more severely than I’ve seen other drivers do this weekend. I really have no clue why the summation of these two incidents gave him a drive-thru’.

@mathers Agreed, I asked them something yesterday and they almost immediately replied – F1, take note!

[Iestyn Davies]

Have to say I’m probably with Verstappen on this one… Fuoco misjudged the undercut to lose his front wing, and I didn’t even notice any bad chop or anything running up the hill or after it, just adjusting lines to have the inside for the hairpins or stopping any potential dives down the inside.

@andae23 Sure, it’s nice, but the more penalties, the more they’ll have to explain how it makes sense.. why a drive-through for ‘not respecting yellows’? I imagine the yellows or the time gained were pretty spurious probably. Giovinazzi losing a win for ‘being too far behind the SC’ as the leader?

I’ve only seen some of Pau (when Max spun, and Rosenqvist was baulked into spinning, before a multi-car pile up at a hairpin) and the end of this race, due to it being streaming and not on TV, but frankly these issues make me not want to bother searching it out. I want to see talent flourish, not be penalised and end up behind some steady-does-it pay driver (I’m aware I would be on the level of the pay driver :P).

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