F1 stewards come clean about Max Verstappen ‘error’ in Japanese GP meeting

Sky Sports F1 lead commentator David Croft has revealed that the stewards have admitted to the other teams that Max Verstappen should have received at least one penalty during qualifying in Singapore last weekend.

The reigning world champion was placed under investigation for three separate incidents during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix, two of which involved the Dutchman blocking other drivers.

While his incident with Williams’ rookie Logan Sargeant was touch-and-go, Verstappen’s block on Yuki Tsunoda looked to be a slam-dunk penalty with his RB19 parked on the racing line, ruining his lap after a mere three corners. 

However, the Dutchman received only two reprimands for his actions, prompting outrage among team principals up and down the paddock and triggering a meeting to review the events in Singapore ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend.

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Croft offered some insight into this during Friday’s FP2 broadcast on Sky Sports F1, stating: “I have it on great authority that in the team manager’s meeting last night that was attended by the stewards, one of the stewards who was on duty in Singapore and is here, actually did say to the team managers, admitted: ‘We probably got that wrong.

“‘To be honest, on reflection [and] looking at it again, we were probably a bit too lenient with Max Verstappen and he could’ve, maybe should have got a three-place grid penalty, at least for one of the reprimands that he got.'”

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Fortunately for Verstappen, he avoided any grid penalties that would have compounded a miserable qualifying performance, but the Dutchman was still forced to start from P11 after failing to reach Q3.

The World Championship points leader went on to recover to P5 and showed some impressive pace to mitigate the damage caused by a poorly timed safety car that threw both Red Bull drivers off sequence in the pit stops. 

However, Verstappen’s struggles look to have been contained to Singapore. He bounced back by topping both FP1 and FP2 in Japan on Friday, finishing six-tenths and three-tenths clear of the rest of the field in the respective sessions.

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