Sao Paulo Grand Prix – Verstappen also summoned to the stewards!
Twist in Sao Paulo! After Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen is also summoned by the FIA.
This Sao Paulo Grand Prix 2021 has therefore experienced a first day full of twists and turns. After Lewis Hamilton’s best time in qualifying, he was summoned by the stewards following a non-compliant DRS. A few hours later, his rival Max Verstappen was also called to appear before the race officials.
The Dutch driver will be heard at 9:30 this Saturday (1:30 pm French time) in the investigation into the compliance of his rival’s Mercedes. After the end of qualifying, amateur video shows the Dutchman standing behind the Mercedes possibly touching its rear wing. The Dutchman would have thus violated article 2.5.1 of the International Sporting Code of the FIA which states that: « In the Parc Fermé, only assigned officials are allowed to enter. Any operation, verification, preparation or repairs is prohibited, except if authorized by the aforementioned officials or by the applicable regulations. »
If Verstappen did indeed touch the rear wing of the Mercedes, this could have caused the infraction for which Hamilton is at risk of being penalized. As a reminder, the British driver’s car has a larger DRS opening than allowed by the regulations. Even if the causation seems improbable, the infraction is real and Mercedes will be able to use these facts to argue for giving the benefit of the doubt to their driver.
Anyway, this Sao Paulo Grand Prix has already reserved many surprises for us and we certainly haven’t seen the end of them yet.
