‘Super dangerous’: Max Verstappen stripped in ultra-rare penalty move

Max Verstappen has had pole position taken away after a “super dangerous” incident that had a rival driver fuming.

Tyson Otto

@tottodtsport

2 min read

December 1, 2024 - 1:44PM

George Russell wasn't impressed. Photo: Fox Sports.

Max Verstappen has been stripped of pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix.

Red Bull appeared to have pulled a rabbit out of a hat when the Dutch driver finished qualifying at the top of the timesheets — something the team hasn’t enjoyed since the Austrian Grand Prix in June.

His pain was Mercedes’ gain with George Russell promoted to pole.

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Stewards announced shortly after Q3 that officials were investigating an incident during a Verstappen cool down lap where the world champion appeared to slow down more than was necessary as Russell was flying around the Losail Circuit in preparation for his final hot lap.

The Mercedes driver was clearly unhappy and said on his team’s radio it was “super dangerous from Verstappen”.

The British driver was forced to take emergency action and ended up scraping his car over a gravel trap before darting sharply to overtake Verstappen on the other side of the track.

“[The gravel was] all over the floor, through the floor,” he said afterwards. “It felt like the floor was scraping over that kerb and through the gravel.

“It was a bit of a hairy one, two corners before we start the lap.

George Russell wasn't impressed. Photo: Fox Sports.

“That was probably the 55 milliseconds [that cost me pole].”

Replays also appeared to show Verstappen himself was being slowed down by a car ahead of him.

FIA Stewards, however, ruled Verstappen had opportunities to avoid blocking Russell.

“The stewards regard this case as a complicated one in that clearly [Verstappen] did not comply with the race director’s event notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances,” the stewards said in their ruling.

“It was obvious the driver of [Verstappen] was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see [Russell] approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between turns 11 and 12.

“Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap. Had [Russell] been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three-grid-position penalty; however, in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of [Russell] had clear visibility of [Verstappen] and that neither car was on a push lap.”

Awkward. Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images.

The penalty handed down was just a one-place grid penalty, something the sport hasn’t seen since 2016, according to racefans.net.

“It was pretty clear in the sprint that everyone on that right side made bad starts, and that’s obviously a little bit unfair to have those circumstances,” Russell said before Verstappen’s penalty. “That ultimately cost me the chance to fight with Lando [in the sprint].

“I think it’s going to be a really close fight between all four teams. Ferrari looked on the same pace as Lando and me this morning. I hope it’s going to be a good one.”

Behind Verstappen and Russell, McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were the best of the rest.

McLaren has an opportunity to lock up its first constructor’s world championship since 1998 if everything falls into place on Monday morning (AEDT).

Piastri took out the earlier sprint race when gifted the race lead by his teammate in the final seconds of the race.

Starting grid for the Qatar Grand Prix

1. George Russell, Mercedes

2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull

3. Lando Norris, McLaren

4. Oscar Piastri, McLaren

5. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

6. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

7. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari