Max Verstappen has been handed a five-second time penalty for a pit exit infringement at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. The Dutchman was adjudged to have crossed the white line while exiting the pit lane following his pit stop on Lap 9 of the race.
Verstappen made only one pit stop during the Miami GP which came on Lap 9 under safety car conditions following the subsequent crashes of Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly. After he came out, the race director noted the driver for potentially having crossed the white line on pit exit. But unlike what is usual, the decision was then pushed to be investigated after the race, rather than taken during the race.
The stewards then investigated the incident after the race, checking on-board and other footage, and even talked to Max Verstappen, before making the decision to award him a five-second time penalty. The stewards’ report revealed that the decision to investigate the matter after the race was made to try and gather better video evidence than what was available at the moment of the incident.
In the meantime, they did in fact find better footage, and saw that the outside of the front left-hand tire of Verstappen’s RB22 crossed the outside of the white line, leading to the penalty for a breach of Appendix L, Chapter IV Article 6 c) of the International Sporting Code. The driver’s testimony in this case was irrelevant.
But this five second penalty does not affect Max Verstappen’s P5 result, as the driver behind him, Charles Leclerc, has also been handed a 20-second penalty. The next closest driver was Lewis Hamilton, who was just over nine seconds down the road.
Charles Leclerc penalty and protects Max Verstappen’s result at the Miami GP
Charles Leclerc received a drive-through penalty amounting to 20 seconds following an investigation after the Miami GP, which realistically protected Max Verstappen’s P5 result at the Miami International Autodrome. The Monegasque was adjudged to have cut multiple corners on without a “justifiable reason” on the final lap of the race.
Leclerc spun and collided with the left hand side wall at Turn 3 on the final lap of the race, leading to massive damage to his front left wheel. This meant he was unable to control his Ferrari SF-26 properly, and cut multiple corners seemingly inadvertently while trying to get to the checkered flag.
At the end of the lap, he was overtaken by George Russell and Max Verstappen, demoting him from P4 to P6 on the track. But after the race, he was immediately put under investigation for cutting the corners as well as driving his car in an unsafe condition.
After the investigation, the stewards decided that while Leclerc’s car was not in an unsafe condition, he did leave the track without “justifiable reason” with a mechanical issue on the car not being seen as such. Hence, Leclerc was in breach of Article B1.8.6 of the FIA F1 Regulations, and received a 20-second penalty, demoting him to P8.
Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli
