rewrite this title Verstappen one penalty point away from race ban

Max Verstappen is one penalty point away from a race ban after the stewards at the Spanish Grand Prix found him responsible for causing a collision with George Russell on Sunday.

Verstappen was penalized 10 seconds in Sunday’s race, leaving him 10th at the finish, and given three additional penalty points on his super license.

The four-time world champion has 11 points on his super license in total, with F1’s rules stating that 12 in a 12-month period will result in a single-race suspension.

Two of Verstappen’s 11 points will expire when they become 12 months old on June 30, meaning Verstappen must avoid any penalties over the next two races in Canada and Austria in order to gain extra breathing room for the rest of the season.

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A further two points will expire on October 27, meaning Verstappen will remain three points away from a ban until after the Mexican Grand Prix even if he avoids any extra points before June 30. Verstappen collided with Russell shortly after his chances of a podium finish were scuppered by a late safety car in Spain.

The Red Bull driver was running third when the safety car was deployed, but because he had already used his allocation of soft and medium tires over a three-stop strategy, he had only a set of hard tires left to fit when he pitted under the safety car.

The two cars behind him — Charles Leclerc and Russell — both fitted soft tires under the safety car and therefore had a tyre advantage when racing resumed.

Leclerc passed Verstappen shortly after they crossed the start finish line to resume racing, while Russell attempted a move into Turn 1 that saw the Mercedes driver slide into Verstappen and force the Red Bull driver wide.

The stewards launched an investigation into the incident, which Red Bull feared might result in Verstappen receiving a penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

Verstappen’s engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, radioed the reigning champion to tell him to give the position back to Russell to avoid a potential penalty — much to the frustration of Verstappen.

On the approach to Turn 5 on the following lap, Verstappen appeared to cede the position to Russell, only to accelerate again before the apex and collide with the Mercedes.

The stewards deemed Verstappen entirely at fault for the collision and issued a 10-second penalty and the three penalty points.

“From the radio communications, it was clear that the driver of Car 1 [Verstappen] was asked by his team to ‘give the position back’ to Car 63 [Russell] for what they perceived to be an earlier breach by Car 1 for leaving the track and gaining a lasting advantage (in fact, we had later determined that we would take no further action in relation to that incident),” the stewards said in a statement.

“The driver of Car 1 was clearly unhappy with his team’s request to give the position back. At the approach to Turn 5, Car 1 significantly reduced its speed thereby appearing to allow Car 63 to overtake. However, after Car 63 got ahead of Car 1 at the entry of Turn 5, Car 1 suddenly accelerated and collided with Car 63.

DriverTeamTime1. Oscar PiastriMcLaren1:32:57.3752. Lando NorrisMcLaren+2.4713. Charles LeclercFerrari+10.4554. George RussellMercedes+11.3595. Nico HulkenbergSauber+13.6486. Lewis HamiltonFerrari+15.5087. Isack HadjarRB+16.0228. Pierre GaslyAlpine+17.8829. Fernando AlonsoAston Martin+21.56410. Max VerstappenRed Bull+21.826

“The collision was undoubtedly caused by the actions of Car 1. We therefore imposed a 10 second time penalty on Car 1.”

In a separate statement about the original collision at Turn 1, the stewards explained they would not have taken further action and therefore Verstappen did not need to give the position back.

“Car 63 attempted to overtake Car 1 on the inside of Turn 1. While the front axle of Car 63 was ahead of the mirror of Car 1 at the apex, the driver of Car 63 momentarily lost control of the car and collided with Car 1, forcing it wide and into the escape road.

“Car 1 re-entered the track at Turn 3 ahead of Car 63. Given that the reason for Car 1 being forced off the track was the loss of control and the resulting contact by Car 63, Car 1 did not deliberately leave the track. We accordingly took no further action.”

The last driver to receive a race ban for accruing 12 penalty points was Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, who missed last year’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix after maxing out his 12 penalty points at Monza.

Single points can be awarded for relatively minor infringements, such as driving unnecessarily slowly during a cooldown lap in qualifying, failing to maintain a ten-car length behind the safety car or speeding violations under a virtual safety car.

Verstappen’s title chances took a hit in Spain as his 10th-place finish saw him drop 49 points off championship leader Oscar Piastri.

He refused to directly reference the incident after the race, though Russell claimed the Dutchman was setting a bad example to the young generation.