Max Verstappen said it became harder to avoid a track limits penalty at the end of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix as he came under pressure from Lando Norris.
The Red Bull driver went beyond the limits of the track three times in the first 20 laps at Imola yesterday. He spent the remaining 43 laps under the threat of a five-second time penalty if he went over the line one more time.
As Norris closed within five seconds of the leader with 13 laps to go, Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase warned him he could not afford another track limits strike. “The main thing to focus on now Max is as the gap is less than five seconds we really can’t afford any track limits [violations] so focus on that,” Lambiase urged.
“They updated me, of course, with the track limits, to just be a bit more careful from that point onwards,” said Verstappen after the race.
Verstappen’s sudden accumulation of three track limits strikes may have caught Red Bull by surprise. All three were recorded within just eight minutes.
The first was announced shortly after he went wide at Rivazza 2 (turn 18) on lap 15. The second followed five laps later in reaction to him going off at the exit of Villeneuve (turn six). However three minutes later he received another track limits strike for an infringement which happened much earlier, on lap 11, at Rivazza 1 (pictured).
“The problem was in the beginning I was understeering a lot on the medium [tyre compound] and that was pushing me a bit off sometimes if I missed the apex,” Verstappen explained.
He was able to take it easier at first after switching to the hard tyre, as Norris initially fell over seven seconds behind him, but soon began to close the gap again.
“On the hard tyres [I was] just leaving a bit more margin,” said Verstappen. “Of course, the last few laps when Lando was catching me it was a bit harder because I had to naturally really use the track as much as I could.
“But we stayed within the lines, but definitely, it does require then a bit more focus, of course. Every exit, you have to be really sure what you’re doing.”
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2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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