Max Verstappen turned away from podium after penalty at F1 race
UPDATE: Following the race, Vettel was handed a 10-second time penalty, dropping him to fifth.
Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen crossed the finish line in third place at Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
However, as he was getting ready to go on the podium, he was given the bad news that he had been handed a five-second time penalty and so placed fifth.
The driver who finished fourth, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, had to run around from the garage over toward the stadium section with the good news that he had placed third.
The penalty was handed out after Verstappen had overshot Turn 1 in the closing stages of the race while holding off Vettel. Verstappen aborted Turn 2 and cut across the grass, rejoining the circuit just in front of Vettel.
Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg had made similar moves on Lap 1 of the race but neither were handed a penalty. In Rosberg's case, the German was taking evasive action to avoid contact with Verstappen.
Still, Vettel was not pleased with Verstappen not handing him the position back on track following the off-track excursion. Additionally, Vettel was under the impression that Verstappen was backing him up into his teammate Daniel Ricciardo, who was running in fifth. Vettel defended against Ricciardo and the two made contact, which was placed under investigation by the stewards. When Vettel learned that he was being investigated, he got on the radio cussing out race director Charlie Whiting. Following the race, Vettel shook his fist at Verstappen as they crossed the line.
Vettel explained his emotions after the race to former F1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya, who conducted the podium interviews.
“I was using a lot of sign language,” admitted Vettel. “Using a lot of your language, probably looking back I felt like you when I got angry in the car. You have to understand, the adrenaline was pumping, I put him under pressure which is difficult enough, our tires both were pretty old and then obviously he left the track and didn’t’ move so you can understand why I was annoyed.
“What a turnaround, I was really disappointed when I crossed the line and then all of a sudden I was told to come up here. Being here in front of the crowd is fantastic.”