took his ninth victory of the 2024 season on the on Sunday, although he wasn’t precisely in a celebratory temper after the race, accusing Mercedes’ George Russell of making an attempt to “screw him over.”
The Purple Bull driver took pole place on Saturday however was handed a uncommon one-place grid penalty after he was deemed to have pushed unnecessarily slowly and impeded Russell throughout qualifying. This meant that Russell was subsequently promoted to P1.
The stewards regarded this as a “sophisticated” case as each drivers have been on sluggish laps, somewhat than pushing on qualifying laps.
Verstappen – who formally on the earlier GP in Las Vegas – overtook the Brit initially of the race and maintained his result in take victory. However the incident was clearly nonetheless on his thoughts after he had crossed the end line, telling the media that he had “misplaced all respect” for Russell.
“I believe that’s the primary time that in a sluggish lap somebody has been penalized,” Verstappen . “Whereas, really, I simply tried to be good, so possibly I shouldn’t be good.
“On the finish of the season, all the pieces is kind of determined, for me particularly, I didn’t wish to screw anybody over to organize their lap. And by doing that, you already know, being good, principally you get a penalty. And that’s what I attempted to elucidate as properly. However I simply felt like I used to be speaking to a brick wall.
“I used to be fairly shocked when sitting there within the Stewards’ room, what was all happening.Truthfully, very disappointing as a result of I believe we’re all right here, we respect one another so much and, after all, I’ve been in that assembly room many occasions in my life, in my profession with those that I’ve raced and I’ve by no means seen somebody making an attempt to screw somebody over that tough.”
After the qualifying incident, Russell mentioned that he was fearful about injury to his automotive, explaining how he “ended up going by means of the gravel all around the flooring, so it felt like the ground was scraping over that curb and thru the gravel.”
He additionally advised Sky Sports activities after qualifying that Verstappen “was clearly going too sluggish, I used to be following the rule and nearly had the crash.”
Russell ultimately completed the race in fourth, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri coming residence behind Verstappen in second and third respectively in a chaotic race.
The Security Automotive made three appearances on Sunday, the primary of which got here on the opening lap when a collision between Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon triggered Ocon to hit Franco Colapinto, taking each drivers out of the race.
Later, a wing mirror was proven flying off Alex Albon’s Williams automotive, with the following particles inflicting punctures for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Russell’s teammate, , and the Security Automotive was introduced out once more.
Verstappen’s former title rival Lando Norris tried to catch the Dutchman napping on the restart, however the reigning champion held him off. Norris was later tagged with a devastating 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to decelerate throughout a yellow flag interval, taking the British driver out of podium rivalry as he ultimately ending tenth.
Hamilton was additionally punished for 2 separate incidents, first serving a five-second time penalty for a false begin earlier than being hit with a drive-through penalty for dashing within the pitlane after struggling a puncture. The seven-time world champion was audibly dejected over the crew radio in what was his , even telling his engineers that he was going to retire the automotive himself.
After the second restart, the Security Automotive got here out for the third time with Hülkenberg having beached himself within the gravel lure.
All of the chaos let rating his and Sauber’s first factors of the season, crossing the road in P8.
F1 heads to Abu Dhabi for the ultimate race of the season this weekend.
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