Max Verstappen captured the victory at the Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix, storming to the front of the field after being forced to start second despite capturing pole position on Saturday. While Verstappen was fastest in the field during the qualifying session, he received a one-place grid penalty for an incident involving Mercedes driver George Russell. Verstappen was noted for driving slowly and impeding the Mercedes driver, an incident that Russell noted to his team during the qualifying session.
In the FIA Press Conference after his win, Verstappen did not hold back when addressing the incident, and the meeting with race officials. The Red Bull driver was asked about the penalty, as well as Russell’s role in the investigation and decision.
“Honestly, I mean… I couldn’t believe that I got it. But in a way, I was also like, yeah, I’m not surprised anymore in the world that I live in. So, yeah. You’re not happy with it. But at one point or another, you have to just turn the page. But, yeah, it wasn’t very enjoyable to see that happen, because I think that’s the first time that in a slow lap someone has been penalised,” began Verstappen. “While, actually, I just tried to be nice. So maybe I shouldn’t be nice. But the thing is that, you know, well, being nice, because at the end of the season, everything is more or less decided, for me especially, I didn’t want to screw anyone over to prepare their lap. And by doing that, you know, being nice, basically you get a penalty. And that’s what I tried to explain as well.
“But I just felt like I was talking to a brick wall. So there’s not much that was possible for whatever reason. Well, I think I really spoke about valid reasons of what happened and it was clear cut that around me there were different scenarios going on as well, with people having colder tyres and stuff so they had to push anyway and I didn’t want to then cause a scene into a last corner. and then, you know, no one had a lap,” continued Verstappen. “So very, very surprising.
“And then the second part of the question,” started Verstappen when he turned to Russell. “Yeah, I was quite surprised when sitting there in the Stewards’ room, what was all going on. Honestly, very disappointing because I think we’re all here, we respect each other a lot and of course, I’ve been in that meeting room many times in my life, in my career with people that have raced and I’ve never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard.
“And that for me… I lost all respect.”
You can see a portion of Verstappen’s comments here:
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1 that Verstappen carried a little extra motivation into the race, and that the two drivers might have exchanged words in the drivers’ parade ahead of the race.
“He was annoyed with George and the way things played out in front of the stewards yesterday,” began Horner. “And he carried that motivation into the race.
“It was clearly evident that he was super motivated going into this race. He got an amazing start. And that whole ‘first, second, third gear’ phase of the start, he was going to be the only car that was going to come out of turn one in the lead.
“I think you could sense that George kind of sensed that as well. I think there was a little bit of a moment between the two of them on the trailer as they go around the circuit, that Max felt that things just went a bit too far yesterday.”
