Max Verstappen likely avoided a penalty by letting Lando Norris overtake him early in the Hungarian Grand Prix after passing his rival off-track at the start.
The Red Bull driver went into turn one alongside the two McLaren drivers, with Norris in the middle and Oscar Piastri on the inside. While both McLaren drivers stayed on the track, Verstappen went off, and rejoined the track in front of Norris.
Norris immediately accused his rival not only of gaining a position off the track, but deliberately carrying too much speed into turn one so he would pass the McLarens on the way in before running wide.
“Max has to give the position,” Norris told his race engineer Will Joseph. “He committed to the outside so he would run off. You can’t do that.”
“We’ve informed race control,” Joseph replied. “He was only ahead because he braked way too deep,” Norris reiterated. “He committed to the exit.”
However Verstappen insisted he was pushed wide by the McLarens. “I got forced off,” he told race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase. “I was ahead at the apex and he just opened the wheel. I got forced off.”
As race control no longer advises teams whether they should surrender positions to avoid penalties, Red Bull had to decide for themselves whether to give up the place. As the stewards first noted the incident, then announced they would investigate it, Red Bull decided to give up the position.
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“Max the incident is under investigation,” Lambiase told him. “I think our recommendation is you let this go, we can talk about it later. If you let Lando past down to turn one.”
“Why can they not just say what they think and then we decide?” Verstappen asked. “This is bullshit.”
“So you can just run people off the track then?” he continued after letting Norris through into second. “You can tell the FIA that’s how we’re going to race now onwards. Just drive people off the road.”
The stewards later announced Verstappen would not be penalised for the incident because he had given up the place to Norris. However they also stated he had gained an advantage by going off the track, indicating he would have received a penalty if he hadn’t returned the position.
“Car one [Verstappen] left the track at the exit of turn one while being alongside car four [Norris] which was alongside car 81 [Piastri].
“Car one rejoined the track in front of Car 4 thereby gaining an advantage….
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