Verstappen loses pole position in Qatar due to FIA sanctions

The now four-time Formula 1 world champion surprised everyone with a near-miraculous recovery at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix to take pole position this Saturday, but race officials flagged an incident the Dutchman suffered late in Q3 with second-placed George. Russell, who was investigated after the hearing.

Before the final lap of Q3, which decided Max Verstappen on pole, Russell collided with the Dutch driver midway while he was warming up his tires in the final corners of Losail (specifically 12, 13 and 14) and was forced to brake to avoid a possible collisions.

Which, in turn, forced the Dutchman to also slow down and leave.”too slow“, which caused exceeds the minimum delta provided for this circuitwhich is clearly prohibited by the rules, so he had to go testify in front of the commission members.

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After listening to the words of the pilot and his crew, The FIA ​​stewards in Qatar decided to penalize Max Verstappen a place on the starting grid. and tomorrow he will have to start from 2nd position, and the pole position was inherited by the other driver involved in the incident: George Russell.

Chronicle and grill:

Here’s how the FIA ​​explained it in an official statement:

Car 1 (Max Verstappen) had a different preparation strategy than Car 63 (George Russell). Car 1 was outside the delta and the driver of Car 1 explained that he had let Cars 4 and 14 pass.

The driver of car #63 stated that he was stuck in the delta and did not expect car #1 to be on the line. He stated that if a car is moving slowly in a corner at high speed, it should not be on the line.

The stewards consider this a difficult case as car #1 did not comply with the race director’s instructions and, in our opinion, was driving unreasonably slow given the circumstances.

It was obvious that the driver of car #1 was trying to cool the tires. He could also see car 63 approaching when he looked in his rearview mirror several times on the short straight between Turns 11 and 12.

Unusually, this incident occurred while neither car was moving in a circle. If car 63 had completed a fast lap, the penalty might have been the usual three positions on the grid.

However, in order to mitigate the penalty, it was clear that the driver of car 63 had a clear view of car 1 and that neither car was on the qualifying lap.

Goal for tomorrow:

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