Verstappen delivers paternity leave quip as threat of ban looms

 Max Verstappen joked he would maybe get a race ban to coincide with his looming paternity leave following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

For a lap 1, Turn 1 incident with Oscar Piastri, Verstappen was hit with a 10-second time penalty by the stewards, and then was sanctioned with two penalty points on his super-licence, taking him to eight for the 12-month period. 

His next set of points are due to come off after the 2025 Austrian GP in June, meaning he faces 11 races of next season close to a race ban. 

But, the world champion quipped that should a ban happen, he could time it to coincide with paternity leave, having announced he and partner Kelly Piquet are expecting their first child together in summer 2025.

“Yeah, maybe I will go to 12 when the baby is born,” Verstappen told media including RacingNews365. 

“So I will be starting paternity leave.

“I don’t understand anything anymore, but it is fine, whatever.

“I am not going to get angry about stuff like that, it is not worth my time, so I will have a break, but the most important thing is that I apologised to Oscar.

“When you are in that position, you are focusing on the car ahead, and you commit, but when you are first or second, you never really look behind, so I went for it and realised he didn’t see me there.

“So I was trying to get out of it, but he clipped me, but it is on me.”