Official: Verstappen retains his victory!
The commissioners have decided: the Red Bull driver is not penalized for his overtaking on lap 69. The Dutchman thus retains his first place, ahead of Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas!
Nearly two hours of waiting for a verdict: Max Verstappen benefits from the leniency of the race stewards! Under investigation for his 69th-lap overtake on Charles Leclerc, the Red Bull Racing driver made his case at 6 PM. Opposing him were the race management, Charles Leclerc, and Laurent Mekies, technical director of Scuderia Ferrari. Although both parties provided evidence of their good faith, it was Verstappen’s argument that was upheld.
To justify themselves, the commissioners provided the following explanation:
« Car 33 attempted to overtake car 16 at turn 3 of lap 69 by braking later. As a result, car 33 was alongside car 16 at the entrance of the turn. Car 33 was completely in control during the maneuver to pass on the inside of car 16. However, cars 33 and 16 both negotiated the turn side by side, but there was clearly insufficient space to do so. A contact between the two single-seaters occurred, shortly after the apex, at the exit of the turn. »
The FIA: « given these circumstances, we do not consider that any of the drivers were wholly or predominantly to blame for the incident. We therefore consider it to be a racing incident. »
Led by Tom Kristensen, the trio of stewards ultimately considered that the Red Bull driver’s overtaking was done within the rules, despite Leclerc going off the track. While this decision will undoubtedly be commented on, there’s no doubt it will cause frustration for Sebastian Vettel, who was penalized for forcing Lewis Hamilton off the track at the Canadian Grand Prix. But Charles Leclerc is obviously the big disappointment of the day, as the Monegasque is still chasing his first Grand Prix victory!
#F1 – Austrian Grand Prix – Documents 49 & 50 pic.twitter.com/yrsnLSpPh1
— FIA (@fia) 30 juin 2019
