Should Verstappen have been given a bigger penalty for Russell collision?

Oscar Piastri, a McLaren driver, won the Spanish Grand Prix from Lando Norris, his fifth consecutive victory.

But the story of the race was the controversial series of events surrounding Max Verstappen in the closing laps.

A few laps after leaving the track and battling for position with the Briton, Verstappen appeared to deliberately drive into George Russell’s Mercedes.

Everyone will have their own opinions on this.

It was clear after the race that many people in Formula 1 did not think Verstappen had behaved correctly in his collision with George Russell’s Mercedes at Turn Five, and he has now admitted that it was “not right and shouldn’t have happened”.

When asked whether Verstappen should have had the black flag, which denotes a driver’s race disqualification, Russell responded, “If it was truly deliberate, then absolutely. Because you cannot deliberately crash into another driver.

We’re putting our lives in danger. We’re fortunate the cars are as safe as they are these days. But we shouldn’t assume it to be true.

But penalties are at the stewards ‘ discretion and in this case they decided to give Verstappen a 10-second penalty, a relatively severe sanction, and three points on his licence.

Why was this treated as a less serious offence than Russell’s drive-through penalty for passing a Williams in Monaco and cutting the chicane to pass a Williams, respectively?

The stewards ‘ verdict did not address that, and an FIA spokesperson said they could not speak for the stewards as they are independent.

Verstappen is one point away from a ban, according to those three points. Which means any transgression in the next two races in Canada and Austria, and Verstappen will be forced to miss the next grand prix.

With the benefit of hindsight, this was one of two mistakes Red Bull made in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen-Russell incident in Turn One was the subject of the stewards’ investigation, so Red Bull decided to order Verstappen to return the place.

Team principal Christian Horner said the decision was based” on recent experience and looking at recent incidents”.

Verstappen continued to hold fourth position by attempting to pass Russell while the pair made light contact with the escape road. He believed he was justified in keeping the place because he felt the Mercedes driver had barged him off the track.

Horner claimed that Red Bull “looked for all intents and purposes going to be a penalty” after speaking with FIA race control but receiving nothing back from them.

Horner added:” The argument is, was George under control at that point in time? He might have turned around. We’ve seen so many occasions this year where penalties have been given.

You’re anticipating a fine, so why was it called “OK, do you know what?” We’re going to have to give this place up. ‘”

Some time after the race, the stewards’ verdict was revealed. It said that Russell had “momentarily lost control of the car and collided” with Verstappen, who “did not deliberately leave the track”. They then, it was reported, abandoned all further action.

In other words, in their view, Verstappen could have justifiably kept the place.

Here, the racing rules have two parts in play. To be entitled to be given space – ie, to have been judged to have won the corner – the driver overtaking on the inside has to have his front axle “at least alongside the mirror of the other car prior to and at the apex”.

Russell appears to have followed this rule.

But the car must also “be driven in a fully controlled manner particularly from entry to apex”.

The stewards decided Russell had not done this. And that was also Verstappen’s opinion.

Was it a mistake, Horner said in retrospect? Yeah, but I think that’s where it would be nice, as the referee, as a race director, to either say, ‘ Play on, ‘ or ‘ you need to give it back. ‘ Because you’re relying on historical precedents, the team has a very difficult time making that call.

The second decision Red Bull got wrong, Horner admitted, was the decision to pit Verstappen for fresh hard tyres under the safety car, one that Verstappen immediately questioned vociferously once he was back on track.

On Sunday morning, this writer and another journalist asked an Aston Martin spokesperson whether claims that Stroll had banged equipment about, sworn at team members, and stormed out of the garage were true.

The spokesperson’s assertions were unfalsifiable. They said: “Lance was upset”.

Aston Martin’s source later reached out to BBC Sport to refute any claims that Stroll had verbally abused colleagues. But not the central truth of the story.

Following Aston Martin’s announcement on Saturday evening that Stroll had withdrawn from the race because of pain in his hand and wrist, which they claimed his doctor’s doctor had thought was related to his two broken wrists from a cycling accident before the 2023 season.

There are a couple of ways of looking at this.

On the one hand, Stroll’s apparent irritation over being knocked out in Q2 and being 0. 535secs slower than team-mate Fernando Alonso suggests he is very invested in his chances to succeed in Formula 1 despite his apparent frustration.

Stroll’s previous outburst after qualifying came in a similar situation, when he had been over a second slower than Alonso in Qatar in 2023.

However, it is unusual for an F1 driver to purposefully skim a race to avoid such pain or injury.

Many drivers race with injuries, and Stroll himself raced with two fractures at the start of 2023, after the operation that the team say his medical consultant believes is at the root of his current predicament.

Only he can tell whether this is Stroll’s beginning or end.

He has a seat at the team as long as he wants. It is owned by his father, Lawrence, who essentially bought it to allow Lance to drive in Formula One and win the title.

Norris has acknowledged that a factor in the McLaren car’s behavior has been having an impact on his qualifying results, particularly what team boss Andrea Stella refers to as a “numb” feeling from the front axle.

To resolve this issue, McLaren have been working with Norris on his driving, and have said that upgrades will be introduced to the car to help the issue.

Norris believed that by taking the lead in Monaco, he had a breakthrough. After he qualified second to team-mate Oscar Piastri in Spain, he was asked whether he still felt he had made that progress.

Norris responded, “The speed was very high today.” And sometimes you just don’t put the laps in. Good things happened today.

” I was a little bit behind at the start of qualifying and I caught up nicely. On the final lap, I am aware of where I went that time. It was just trying a little bit too much and just not being quite tidy enough – especially around a lap like Barcelona.

You kind of know it’s going to be a challenging rest of the lap if you take one little oversteer in Turn One and Turn Two. So, it’s still good. I’m still feeling fine. I’m happy with second, especially in Barcelona – it’s not the end of the world. A happy weekend therefore.

This topic was not covered in Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur’s post-race briefing. However, keep in mind that driving long is a common tactic in Spain to offset the driver’s tyres against a rival.

Russell was only two seconds behind Hamilton when Mercedes pitted him on lap 41, well within undercut range. For this reason, Ferrari would have to omit Hamilton from the equation.

In any case, this is not the biggest issue surrounding Hamilton after the Spanish Grand Prix.

After the race, the seven-time champion was unappreciative. He mumbled through his media briefing, giving very short answers, if he answered questions at all, before excusing himself after a couple of minutes.

He claimed that he had no idea why the race was so bad and that it was the “worst race I’ve ever experienced, balance-wise.” There were “zero” positives, he said.

Probably Hamilton’s lack of pace was what caused him to worry.

He started the race two places ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc. Even if Leclerc’s session had gone awry as he attempted to save two brand-new medium tyres for the race, Hamilton’s qualifying effort was commendable.

Leclerc passed Mercedes ‘ Kimi Antonelli immediately and trailed close behind Hamilton until lap 10, when Ferrari ordered Hamilton to let him by.

Hamilton’s team-mate lost just under four seconds in the five laps that followed his pit stop.

Leclerc stopped for the first time a lap later than Hamilton. Hamilton was 10 seconds adrift by the time the Monegasque made another stop on lap 40.

That’s hardly a disaster, but nor is it what Hamilton expects of himself.

According to Vasseur, Hamilton had a problem with his car in the final stage of the race, which he did not disclose.