Verstappen Penalized: FIA Confirms Sanction After Japanese Grand Prix Review… read more
Max Verstappen has been penalized bythe FIA, but not for the Japanese Grand Prix. Instead, the penalty was for the Brazilian Grand Prix sprint race, where he was found to have breached Virtual Safety Car (VSC) rules ¹.
The Infraction
Verstappen was given a five-second penalty for momentarily pulling alongside Oscar Piastri’s McLaren on the approach to Turn 4 while the race was still under VSC conditions. This move was deemed to have gained an unfair advantage, as Verstappen was 0.63 seconds below the minimum time set by the FIA when the VSC ended.
