The Spanish Grand Prix went from a rather ordinary race to absolute chaos in the span of a few laps as Max Verstappen lost his temper over the last six laps of the Barcelona event.
That led to a safety car that shook things up as many drivers pitted for one final time.
Verstappen, having opted for three stops compared to most of his rivals’ two-stoppers, made a fourth pitstop but, having no other tyres left, was sent back out with a new set of hards.
“Why the ****? What is this tyre?” asked Verstappen on the radio.
The Red Bull driver was then told that it was the only option Red Bull had left, having used all of the other sets as a result of the three-stop strategy.
Even though it was a new set of tyres, Verstappen was at a major disadvantage as he was surrounded by rivals on the soft compound.
When Piastri relaunched the race, Verstappen was already in trouble, the rear of his car snapping at the start of the straight, allowing Charles Leclerc to quickly get alongside him.
As they both drove at full speed, replays showed that Verstappen and Leclerc made contact, leading to complaints on the radio from the Dutch driver.
“He just rammed into me. That’s a penalty,” he said, later adding: “He needs to give the position back.”
The mistake at the start also allowed George Russell to have a go at passing Verstappen down Turn 1, a move that resulted in more contact and in the Red Bull driver cutting through the escape road to keep his position.
Verstappen was then advised by his race engineer to let Russell through, which led to more cursing from Verstappen on the radio.
Verstappen left Spain 49 points behind Piastri
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“What? I was ahead, mate. What the f**k?,” Verstappen complained.
After that, the Red Bull driver slowed down between Turns 4 and 5 and appeared to let Russell through, but then he accelerated again and rammed into the Mercedes as they took the corner.
“What the f**k? He crashed into me,” said Russell.
The move looked clearly deliberate and it didn’t take long before stewards gave Verstappen a 10-second penalty that relegated him from fifth to 10th.
Verstappen finally gave up the position to Russell a couple of corners later.
“I’ve done that before… in Mario Kart,” joked Norris after seeing the replay on TV in the cool-down room.
As a result of the incident, Verstappen was given three penalty points, leaving him just one point short of a race ban. The next two points expire on 30 June, meaning Verstappen can’t afford to get any penalty points in the next two races in Canada and Austria.
Was the penalty too lenient?
There is little doubt that Verstappen’s ramming of Russell was deliberate and some form of revenge for the early incident in which the Red Bull driver felt his Mercedes had pushed him off at Turn 1.
Piastri takes commanding win from Norris as Verstappen gets penalised for late crash in Spanish Grand Prix
By
Pablo Elizalde
In that context, the penalty was very lenient, as there is no scenario in which a driver has the right to crash into a rival on purpose and Verstappen’s driving was inexcusable.
Red Bull’s decision to put him on hard tyres instead of a used set of mediums or softs is difficult to understand, and will have been a contributing factor in Verstappen’s mistake at the restart and his subsequent anger.
Verstappen will probably not care about finishing 10th instead of fifth, which speaks about his desire to win, but also about the lengths he will often go to to prove a point, even at the expense of hurting his chances or his reputation.
Even though he is now 49 points behind Piastri, Verstappen can consider himself lucky to leave Spain having scored one point.
