Max Verstappen cops two 10-second penalties in controversial Mexican Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz won the Mexico GP in his flying Ferrari but the biggest talking point was the latest fallout from Formula One’s fiercest feud - and the Aussie who has a front-row seat to the drama.

The Australian Formula One ace tipped to be a future world champion has been given a taste of what lies ahead after being caught in the middle of one of the most explosive endings to a grand prix season in years when all hell broke loose in Mexico.

Spain’s Carlos Sainz won the Mexican Grand Prix in his flying Ferrari but the biggest talking point was the latest fallout between reigning world champion Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, the teammate of Aussie driving sensation Oscar Piastri.

Fed-up with Verstappen’s tactics as they continue to battle it out for the drivers’ title, Norris said his Red Bull rival was “dangerous” and he almost drove him into a wall when they came into contact at high speed during the opening laps of the race.

F1 stewards slapped Verstappen with two separate 10-second penalties but he recovered to finish the Mexican Grand Prix in sixth place and earn eight valuable championship points.

Max Verstappen and Lando Norris are locked in a fierce battle for the championship

Norris crossed the line second after overtaking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc nine laps from the end.

He collected 18 points to reduce Verstappen’s lead to 47 with four regular races and two sprints to go.

When the race ended, both were still at loggerheads over what happened on the track and Norris said Verstappen deserved to be punished.

“I don’t think I need to say much,” the Englishman said. “I think it’s pretty self-explanatory on what happened.

“I go into every race expecting a tough battle with Max. It’s clear that it doesn’t matter if he wins or second, his only job is to beat me in the race and he’ll sacrifice himself to do that.

“He’s never going to make anyone’s life easy, especially mine at this point of the year, but I think this was just not fair, clean racing and therefore I think he got what he had coming to him.”

McLaren boss Zak Brown was happy to pour more fuel on the fire when he said it was time the sport’s officials pulled Verstappen into line.

“It’s getting a bit ridiculous,” Brown said. “I applaud the FIA stewards. Enough is enough.

Max Verstappen was slapped with two separate 10-second penalties after tangling with Lando Norris during the Mexico Grand Prix

Verstappen, who is chasing a fourth successive drivers’ title, was unrepentant.

“I’m not worried,’’ Verstappen said. “The problem is, when you’re slower you’re being put into those kind of positions. I’m not going to give up easily.”

Piastri steered clear of the drama that was unfolding ahead of him but won’t be able to escape it much longer because he may have a big part to play in how the championship finishes.

Piastri finished the race eighth after ruining any hope he had of getting on the podium by qualifying 17th.

However, he still earned McLaren another four points in the papaya team’s bid to win the constructors’ title for the first time since 1998.

McLaren's Australian driver Oscar Piastri had a forgettable race in Mexico

McLaren holds a 29-point lead over Ferrari, which finished first and second and first and third in the last races.

It has put pressure on Piastri to finish the season strongly in the next round in Brazil, then Las Vegas, Qatar and finally Abu Dhabi.

“Just a bit of a frustrating weekend with qualifying and eighth is not where we want to be finishing,” Piastri said.

“Outside of the results, I felt like I gained quite a lot of understanding about what I need and hopefully I can take that forward for the rest of the year.

“I don’t think we were lacking any (pace). I just made a mistake, which made it even more painful.

“I felt like I had good pace through practice and just made the mistake in qualifying.

“Then in the race, once I had a clean air, I felt very strong again so it was frustrating we didn’t get a better result.”

SAINZ TAKES TOP GONG, FEUD BOILS OVER

Carlos Sainz has taken out the Mexican Grand Prix, but the race was all about once incident between championship rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.

Norris came in second in Mexico, four spots ahead of Verstappen who served two 10-second penalties for offences at turn four and turn seven during a tussle with Norris.

“I was ahead the whole way through the corner, this guy is dangerous,” Norris fumed on the team radio at the time. “I just have to avoid a crash, I will end up in the wall in a minute.”

Speaking post race, Norris added:“I knew what to expect, I didn’t want to expect such a thing because I respect Max as a driver but I was ready to expect something like this and this is not very clean driving in my opinion, I avoided it and it was a good race.”

McLaren team boss Zak Brown applauded the stewards for taking action, but felt more needs to be done.

“Probably not enough,” Brown said of the penalties. “I mean, it’s getting a bit ridiculous. I applaud the FIA stewards.

“Enough is enough. Let’s just have some good clean racing moving forwards. I think the stewards are on it, I think that’s clear by the penalties that were given. The stewards did a good job this weekend.”

The result saw Norris make up 10 points on Verstappen in the drivers championship, but he still sits 47 behind with only four races to go.

The big winners for the day were Ferrari, which has jumped to second on the constructors’ championship, with Charles Leclerc (third) joining Sainz on the podium in the Mexico City and collecting a bonus point for fastest lap.

The Italian outfit is now only 29 points behind McLaren.

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Originally published as Max Verstappen cops two 10-second penalties in controversial Mexican Grand Prix