Verstappen on the Limit: One penalty point keeps him away from suspension

Verstappen Penalized After Crash in the Spanish Grand Prix

Driver Max Verstappen suffered a penalty that relegated him to tenth place in the Spanish Grand Prix. The key incident involved a collision with George Russell, where the champion seemed to deliberately hit the Mercedes driver.

Verstappen, who was in third position after a Safety Car period, was overtaken by Charles Leclerc and almost by Russell at Turn 1.

The Dutch driver showed his frustration at the maneuvers of Leclerc and Russell. After receiving instructions from Red Bull to concede fourth position to Russell, Verstappen seemed to lift his foot off the accelerator to allow the Briton to overtake, but then collided with the side of Russell’s car.

Russell, surprised by the situation, managed to overtake Verstappen a few corners later.

The stewards didn’t take long to penalize Verstappen, imposing a 10-second penalty. This caused him to drop from fifth to tenth place, his worst result since the 2024 Australian Grand Prix.

Upon reviewing the images in the cooling room, the reaction of the first three pilots was disbelief.