20 second penalty results in sixth place finish for Max Verstappen in Mexican Grand Prix
Max Verstappen finished 6th in the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit. The reigning champion was given a 20-second time penalty after another battle with title challenger Lando Norris of McLaren. The race was won by Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari.
The incident with Norris had a lot of resemblance to what happened in the last race in the United States. Both drivers were battling for a place, with Norris claiming he was ahead and that Verstappen had overtook him outside of the track.
It was a successful start to the race for the Dutch driver. He had started in second as Sainz had pole, but he got away perfectly to take first place before the first corner.
However, the safety car was called in the first lap as Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen’s former teammate Alex Albion had to retire from the race after a collision.
But the second restart was also well performed by Verstappen. The reigning champion picked his moment to restart the race perfectly, giving himself a comfortable lead ahead of Sainz to restart the race.
But this did not last for long as Sainz overtook him with a sublime piece of driving in the ninth lap. Verstappen spoke of his anger about the car after this incident. “What can I do with a fucking empty battery?” He said.
As has been the case in most races this season, the Red Bull vehicle was not as quick as the competitors, and this led to Verstappen losing second place to Norris. But the reigning champion would not accept this, and both drivers were forced off the road after some dangerous driving from Verstappen. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was on hand to take advantage and take second place.
Norris told his team that Verstappen was incredibly dangerous and that, just like in the last race, he had overtaken him off the track after the incident and had to give the spot back.
This incident led to Verstappen receiving a 20-second time penalty from the driving association, the FIA.
He went into the pits to serve his punishment in the 27th lap. He came out in 15th position after the pitstop.
Although the Red Bull vehicle cannot compete with the other cars at the top end of the race it was clear that it is still way too fast for the cars that Verstappen ended up behind as he very simply went past several cars to ninth in five laps.
Franco Colapinto, a young, promising driver for Williams, gave Verstappen a good fight for the eighth position, but the 27-year-old was able to get past the Argentine driver to take the eighth spot.
He also went past Liam Lawson before climbing to sixth, which is where he finished the race.
Although Norris has closed the gap to Verstappen in the title rankings to 41 points, it will be incredibly difficult for the young British driver to win the championship. He would need to outscore Verstappen by 12 points per race. This has only happened once in the 20 races this season: the Australian Grand Prix. And this was because Verstappen did not finish the race. There are currently four races left.
The constructors championship is now more or less certain to be lost for Red Bull this season. McLaren are top with 566 points, with Ferrari following with 537 points. Red Bull follows both these teams in third with 512 points.
