19 November 2023 , 06:43
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David Croft and Martin Brundle agreed Max Verstappen's penalty for an illegal overtake on Charles Leclerc at the start of the Las Vegas Grand Prix was "soft".
The Red Bull star began the race in second place while Leclerc was on pole. But despite being on the dirty side of the grid, an issue made even worse by a pre-race oil spill, it was Verstappen who got the better launch off the line.
He was level with Leclerc when they went into the first corner. But Verstappen was entering the corner at a narrow angle and went wide, going off the track and forcing the Ferrari to follow him to avoid a crash.
Leclerc fumed but Red Bull told their driver not to give the position back. They were confident that Verstappen was ahead before they went off the track, but the stewards appeared not to agree.
After taking a fair while to consider the situation, they handed the Dutchman a five-second time penalty. He was informed about it by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who seemed unperturbed by the punishment
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"You have been given a five second penalty for that incident, but you're already two seconds ahead of behind. So, just keep eeking that cap out to the [pit] stop," he told his driver.
And Verstappen was similarly unbothered in his reply. "Yeah, that's fine. Send them my regards," he quipped. Both Sky Sports commentator Croft and colleague Brundle felt the Red Bull racer got off lightly.
"They've given a five-second time penalty to Verstappen for forcing another driver off the track," said Brundle. "In a way, I think that position should be given back because five seconds, he's already got a two second lead on him and track position to control the race form there. They've decided he's done something wrong but I'm not sure that's a tough enough penalty."
He later went on to describe is as "half-a-penalty", while Croft concurred that the punishment seemed to be a light one. "It's a glib comment from Max Verstappen and it's a penalty that might amount to absolutely nothing, given he could well be five seconds clear by the time he makes that pit stop," he said. "He's got the advantage of leading by doing something that the stewards say that he shouldn't have done, but there's no penalty really for him. Something about that... I don't think it's a penalty."
However, Verstappen was not as clear by his first pit stop as he would have liked. He was struggling on his tyres and was being caught all the time. And when he was given the signal for a change of rubber, Leclerc passed him on track before he even got to the pit lane, setting up a good battle for the win.