Former Formula 1 driver Martin Brundle would have given Max Verstappen a drive-through penalty for cutting the Turns 1-2-3 section at the start of the Mexico Grand Prix.
Verstappen found himself on the dusty outside kerb ahead of the first braking zone at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with polesitter Lando Norris on the right-hand side of the track and both Ferraris between them; the Red Bull driver locked-up, quickly realised he was going too deep into the corner and drove straight to the exit of Turn 3, emerging in third place.
Verstappen subsequently let Lewis Hamilton through, returning to the fourth position he held before the first corner – but that’s not acceptable, Brundle has claimed.
“Max should have had a penalty, because if you put your car on the far-left and four abreast, it will go on the kerb,” the Sky Sports pundit said on the channel’s F1 Show podcast. “You can see Max actually accelerate – really skilful driving through the grass, I must say, but Max made no effort whatsoever to take Turns 1, 2 or 3. And that should have been a penalty.
“Max took the risk on the outside, knowing full well he could just bury the throttle and carry on.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Kym Illman / Getty Images
“I might even have given somebody doing what Max did a drive-through, really as a proper deterrent to stop the silliness. Because then it all gets chaotic.”
1997 F1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve disagreed, based on the fact that Verstappen – as he often does in his ruthless quest for perfection – simply bent the rule without breaching it.
“The thing is, intent is one thing, and we cannot put really intent in the rules, it’s difficult,” Villeneuve pointed out. “By the rules, he was ahead of George [Russell], let them back, so by the rules, it didn’t deserve a penalty. By the action, yes.
“So how do you proceed? You follow the rules, or you go with what we know is right and wrong. And right now, you just have to go by the rules, because the rules have been put in place. And the rules are actually very badly written, like we’ve seen.
“He knew it was worth taking a risk because whatever, just step on the gas and go through. So did [Verstappen and Leclerc] deserve a penalty? Driving-wise, yes. According to the rules, no. That’s the difficulty.”
Also in an unfavourable position on the outside of Norris and Hamilton into Turn 1, Charles Leclerc was given space by his team-mate but nonetheless cut Turn 2 to emerge in the lead. The Monegasque let Norris through but crucially retained the position over Hamilton.
“For me, at least Charles made an attempt at Turn 1, didn’t like the look of the way it was shaping up, so just ignored Turn 2 – and that, for me, was also a 10-second penalty,” Brundle said.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lando Norris, McLaren, George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Villeneuve concurred: “Leclerc, yes, because he was actually behind Lewis. He didn’t even try to make the corner. He stepped on it and realised, ‘Oh, it’s my team-mate. Nothing will happen to me.’
“So the problem is that corner. If you have gravel there or a wall, you wouldn’t be four-wide. You would be two-wide maybe, and everybody else would back off, because they would know that there’s not an escape road. Now they think, ‘Okay, it doesn’t matter – if I just brake way too late, I might be ahead, I’ll come out ahead, maybe I let them by or not, nothing lost. It’s worth the risk.’
“And that’s why we have these crazy first corners on that track. That is an issue that we will have every year. Just drivers dive-bombing on the outside, knowing then they can just go straight.”
The incidents drew the ire of several competitors, with fifth-placed George Russell labelling his peers’ driving standards as “lawnmower racing” while Fernando Alonso cunningly announced that he too might start cutting corners if that went unpunished.
“I completely can understand those drivers – that were minding their business actually staying on the racetrack – going like, ‘Well, hang on, I’m losing out here. I might as well just make my own racetrack up in the first few corners and gain some places’,” Brundle pointed out.
Leclerc and Verstappen both took podium finishes in Mexico, with the Dutchman’s title bid more alive than ever with his deficit to championship leader Norris down to 36 points.
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