Five-second penalty for Max Verstappen, who loses one position

Max Verstappen thought he had limited the damage during the Sprint race by getting the better of Charles Leclerc, which only cost him two points against Lando Norris, who benefited from team orders at McLaren to win.

But as soon as the checkered flag was waved, the officials announced that the championship leader was under investigation for a violation during the brief virtual safety car intervention. The penalty finally came a few hours later: the Dutchman was below the minimum pace by 0.63 seconds. Therefore, the penalty is immediate: five seconds penalty!

This is all the more crucial in the sprint format as the gaps are naturally smaller than in the race. This costs him a position, which benefits Charles Leclerc, who regains the third place he held on the starting grid.

The Red Bull driver thus finds himself in the position of the pot calling the kettle black. Indeed, on the radio, he had asked his team to make sure that Oscar Piastri did not slow down too much to create a gap with his teammate. The pit wall then indicated to him that he himself was going too fast. Even though he tried to slow down before returning to the normal race pace, the green flag was waved before he had time to drop back below the threshold.

The gap between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris is now 44 points, ahead of tomorrow's Brazilian Grand Prix.