Saturday 20th November 2021
Backlog and investigation
To the horror, Verstappen is threatened with punishment
The fight for the title in Formula 1 is more exciting this season than it has been for many years. Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are neck and neck with three races to go, mistakes can have huge consequences. It is possible that Verstappen did a bitter one.
World Championship leader Max Verstappen faces a penalty ahead of Sunday’s Formula 1 race in Qatar. Because the 24-year-old is said to have ignored yellow flags in his Red Bull on Saturday in qualifying, he has to go to the race stewards on Sunday. As the world motor sport federation Fia announced, Verstappen and another representative of his team have to appear for the appointment at 1 p.m. local time (11 a.m. CET). The conversation takes place just four hours before the planned start of the race on the Losail International Circuit in the north of Doha.
In concrete terms, Verstappen is accused of “failing to observe the double-waved yellow flags at 6 p.m.”. This is actually a signal that the drivers have to reduce their speed significantly due to a danger. In the last section of the qualification, Verstappen should not have done that. In the chase for times he had earned second place on the grid and was only beaten by pole setter Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.
“It’s a big backlog”
However, the gap between the two, who are fighting bitterly for the world title, was huge. In the decisive section of the qualification, Hamilton had almost half a second ahead of Verstappen, who had no chance at all. “We have to work on our start and then see what is possible. We focus on the race,” said the 24-year-old. “We just weren’t fast enough. Sometimes that just happens.” To be second is “okay, but it’s a big deficit”. Verstappen is now under even more pressure. It seems possible that the Dutchman will now also receive a starting place penalty and be relegated to the back.
Before the third to last race of the season, Verstappen is still leading in the overall standings with 14 points ahead of Hamilton. The fact that this lead will be even smaller retrospectively has been off the table since Friday. Mercedes had failed in its attempt to protest against a decision by the race stewards at the Grand Prix in São Paulo in favor of Verstappen. A right of review was not granted by the world motor sport association Fia. The Silver Arrows had retrospectively checked a tough duel maneuver on Tuesday.