VERSTAPPEN: “RED BULL’S SLOW SPEED LED TO MY PENALTY”
Max Verstappen commented on the 20-second penalty he received during the Mexican Grand Prix.
He stated that the lack of race pace in his car was the main factor in the incidents with Lando Norris that resulted in his penalty. In the 10th lap, Verstappen pushed Norris off the track twice at turns 4 and 7, and during this time, he overtook the McLaren driver from outside the track, receiving a 10-second penalty for each incident.
Verstappen noted that his biggest issue during the 71-lap race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was the insufficient speed of his car, which led to the situations resulting in penalties. He said, “To be honest, 20 seconds is a lot, but I’m not going to complain about it or share my opinion.”
He added, “The biggest problem I had was that it was a bad day in terms of race pace. This was particularly evident with the medium and hard tires.” The Dutch driver described the penalty for the incident at turn 4 as a “question mark” while accepting the incident at turn 7.
“Honestly, neither of these things are my problem. The issue is that we were too slow, which put us in these kinds of positions. That’s my problem,” he concluded.
Verstappen evaluated the race, noting that he had very little grip on the hard tires and lost more time due to the brakes not holding.
“I mean, it was good to fall back to sixth, but then I couldn’t even compete with the Mercedes cars ahead. I had no grip at all, I was sliding too much, I couldn’t brake. So yes, it was a very tough race.”
When discussing the effects of the racing rules, he added that it was just a tough race and that it was up to him to drive as he saw fit.
“Lando and I didn’t make contact. We just raced closely. But at the end of the day, everyone speaks for themselves.”
“Of course, could the rules be better? Maybe yes, maybe no. It’s always the same. I drive the way I think I should. There was no issue last week, and this week I get a 20-second penalty… What’s done is done, life goes on.”
“I’m still leading with 47 points. I hope we can be a bit more competitive in the upcoming races.”
