Late in the Italian Sunday evening, on the Sunday after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, the race guards released an important document in which they formalized the penalty imposed on Max Verstappen Follow what happened in Jeddah during an event full of season surprises.
Race keepers Gary Connelly, Silvia Bellot, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Hassan Abdali imposed a 10-inch penalty on Max Verstappen at the end of the Saudi Grand Prix, and this decision is important for two reasons.
The first is the motive that prompted commissioners to hold the Red Bull driver responsible for what happened during the Grand Prix, when the Dutchman braked – apparently overtaken by Hamilton and surrendered to the illegally held pole position. By Briton – and Lewis finished off at the No. 33 Red Bull RB16B.
At the end of the race, the hosts called Verstappen and Hamilton to hear their reasons for what had happened, as well as representatives of their teams. Then they watched the video of the rear-end collision and telemetry.
Evidence from this analysis determined that it was Max Verstappen who was deeply wrong. At Turn 21 Verstappen knew he had to give the position to Hamilton, but as a strategy he started slowing down in Turn 26, so he could immediately take advantage of the DRS and overtake Hamilton again. The Mercedes driver, for his part, understood his rival’s intentions and stayed behind to avoid passing him again a few hundred metres.
After that, the two riders grappled, but the hosts decided to penalize Verstappen because in braking he caused a deceleration of 2.4g, which is great braking to say the least (69 bars). Basically, a real test of the brakes, which is the braking to provoke a foul, as in fact, Hamilton complained on the radio immediately after the accident.
Verstappen was also penalized by commissioners with 2 license points, bringing his penalty points collected in the last 12 months to 7. He still has 5 of the 12 total available.
The second point, however important, is that the 10″ handed down as a penalty to Verstappen does not in any way alter the final classification of the penultimate World Cup event. Valtteri Bottas, third at the finish line after the race ends with Esteban Ocon, he came close to 20″ behind Dutch Red Bull. A decision that had no effect on the world championship, but that leaves more doubts after a day that was chaotic to say the least about the direction of the race.
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