Max Verstappen has been handed a 10-second penalty for causing a Turn 27 collision with Lewis Hamilton in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, plus two penalty points.
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Max Verstappen has been handed a 10-second penalty for causing a Turn 27 collision with Lewis Hamilton in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, plus two penalty points.
The title protagonists were embroiled in a bizarre incident on Lap 37 of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Verstappen, who was asked to return the lead to Hamilton having been deemed to gain an advantage going off track earlier at Turn 1, slowed to let his rival past.
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Hamilton, however, was caught off-guard by the slowing Red Bull and attempted to jink left in avoidance, clipping the car ahead and damaging his front wing. Verstappen received a five-second penalty for the earlier Turn 1 incident, with both drivers summoned to the stewards for this Turn 27 scrap.
"However, it was obvious that neither driver wanted to take the lead prior to DRS detection line 3. The driver of Car 33 stated that he was wondering why Car 44 had not overtaken and the driver of Car 44 stated that, not having been aware at that stage that Car 33 was giving the position back, was unaware of the reason Car 33 was slowing.
"In deciding to penalise the driver of Car 33, the key point for the Stewards was that the driver of car 33 then braked suddenly (69 bar) and significantly, resulting in 2.4g deceleration.